Resistance is Futile
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: The human's had turned on them and now hunted them down and killed them- in a last ditch effort to blend in with the very beings that had betrayed them- Optimus and the others had tweaked their holo forms and enrolled them in a local school. Everything was fine, until one human Femme bled to protect one of them. From that point on- she was theirs. Optimus/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Yo- I know that I just started a transformers fic, but I wanted to try making a different one for funsies. I'm not going to lie, it's a school fic with the transformers in their 'tweaked' human forms.**

 **Optimus/OC**

 **I'm just going to see how this goes- if it doesn't take then I might put it on hiatus. Which I would absolutely hate to do since I have never done so with any of my other fics. Nor do I want to abandon it. So, read/don't read. Let me know what your thoughts are, cause I'm fairly certain that this fic is going to suck.**

 **Or not- you never know.**

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The first time that any of them had really noticed the little femme, it during their second month as human adolescent's enrolled in the local school. It was a typical September afternoon of them ignoring the human kids, the kids (especially the males) getting pissed at them and deciding to lash out like the children that they were.

This time their intended target just happened to be Bumblebee, whom today was sitting alone.

Convenient right?

Think again. Usually Optimus and the rest of the guys tended to stick together like they were conjoined twins, however today the teacher had decided to separate the whole lot of them for reasons that none of them really knew or understood.

And normally Optimus would have thrown a fit that would have landed him either back where he was needed or in hot water with the teacher- however today- before he could so much as do or say anything their teacher had been called to the principal's office for something.

Leaving all of the kids, without any true form of supervision.

That's when the trouble began. Not that any of them were really surprised by this fact. Human's as a whole seemed to thrive on trouble of some kind regardless of whether it was an appropriate time for it or not.

Now, everyone of the Autobots knew that Bumblebee could take care of himself if it came down to an actual, honest to god fight. Optimus had trained the mech personally, so he and a few others knew what he was capable of. However the human's didn't. So it would never occur to them that they were stepping into something that they should keep their noses out of- at least until it was too late.

Today- the trouble makers were the same as usual.

The athlete elite, which consisted of James Horatio, Markus Max, Jamie Lynx and a few others.

The teens were crowded around Bumblebee's desk. Each of them were invading the younger mech's personal space, touching him, saying crude and disgusting things about his body that churned Optimus's stomach and made him see red. So when one of them actually had the audacity to lean down and press their lips to Bee's- that was when Optimus, Jazz and several others present began to get to their feet to go help their young friend who seemed to have frozen in shock when suddenly the male kissing Bee was yanked back away from him and went tumbling to the ground with a dull thud.

Optimus didn't really _see_ her at first. The males were far taller than her, and their bulky bodies were hiding her much shorter and more petite form from view. However Bee saw her, if his shocked/awed facial expression was anything to go by.

In recent months, humans had dealt them a terrible blow. Going from their allies, comrades and friends, to their enemies in the short span of time that they had been on Earth.

So the fact that not only a human- but a femme- was defending one of them was...well, distressing to them, to say the least. However it was happening nevertheless.

The athletes all turned on the femme like a pack of rabid dogs, causing Bee to jump up from his seat and begin to move to place himself between her and the other humans, however he never got the chance before one of them reared back his fist and punched her.

There was nothing held back from the force of the blow. It was meant to not only injure the femme, but to knock her down and instill fear within her.

Something that none of them liked the idea of very much. In fact Bee looked like he was about to rip the head off of the guy that had struck her and beat the hell out of the others. And he was a split second from possibly blowing their cover when the femme _dropped_ the guy that had hit her.

Optimus didn't even know how she did it.

One second the guy that had hit her was smirking and looking thoroughly pleased by his cowardly and low action towards the femme, and the next he was on the floor and she was stepping over him so that she could make her way to her desk in the back of the room.

She brushed by him, Jazz, Ratchet, and Sideswipe as she moved, not bothering to hide the blood running down her chin from her mouth.

Turning their attention to the femme, they each watched her sit down at her desk and prop her injured cheek in her hand as she looked out of the window.

It was after that day that they each began to watch her. It was simply difficult not to. Especially after she had gotten hurt defending one of their own. And though her injuries were minor- the fact that she had been hurt helping one of their own was a difficult thing to just sit back and ignore.

After all, they were honorable bots, despite what the human's thought.

So soon after they began watching the femme, it became an unspoken rule- that no one would mess with her unless they wanted to get beaten down. _She was theirs_. Period.


	2. Chapter 2

Her name was Sara Hart, she was sixteen, had near waist length dark chocolate colored hair that curled around her face and shoulders, _beautiful_ soft green eyes, ivory skin, pale rose colored lips. She usually liked to wear her hair either up in a hair clip or a high ponytail or a braid.

Her favorite lunch time foods were either a salad, and juice- or an apple and a sandwich and a juice. Her favorite colors were different shades of blue, purple, pink, dark and mint green, dark red, black and white. Her favorite hobbies at school were reading, and writing.

Her hobbies outside of school were music, making jewelry, paintings, perfumes, scented lotions, candles, embroidery pictures, pillow cases, blankets and had written some children's books that she usually sold online or at a local flea market. Her usual income from her crafts ranged from fifteen thousand to thirty thousand dollars a month.

She lived on her own. Had two kittens that she had adopted.

Was a ward of the state.

Her parents were alive, yet unfit to care for her due to being abusive. She had grandparents in their late seventies that she liked to go and visit several times a week.

But above all other things- she was alone. Whether it was while in school or outside school, Sara simply didn't socialize with anyone unless she was forced to. Which was something that Optimus, the others and the femme all seemed to have in common.

Deciding that this amount of information that each of them had collected on the femme over the past two in a half weeks of following her around at school and outside of school- was more than enough- though it wasn't a lot, to use to establish contact with. Or so Optimus thought as he leaned against the wall next to the lockers where Jazz and Ratchet were also standing.

School had just let out for the weekend and the three were waiting on the others so that they could try making their first attempt at contact with Sara.

Everyone was pretty much gone in the few minutes that he and the other two spent waiting on the rest of their friends while he watched Sara slip a denim jacket on to protect herself from the cool temperatures outside. Once she had her jacket on, she grabbed a small leather square out of the locker she was standing in front of and slipped it into her jacket pocket at the same exact moment that the rest of the Autobots managed to join them.

"Hey! Sorry for the wait, we got into some mischief and got held up by the teacher." Sideswipe said, apparently deciding that it was best to give a reason _why_ they were late since no one else was speaking up.

"Mischief?" Optimus asked, his voice raspy from disuse since he rarely spoke now-a-days.

Sara paused in mid step to look back at him, her green eyes narrowing slightly at the curious sounding pitch and tone of the older boy's voice. He had a deep voice. Commanding. Soothing. _Beautifully_ e _nthralling_...despite the raspy tone it held. What the hell was she doing? She suddenly wondered with a mental shake. She had better things to do than fixate on another person's voice.

She needed to go grab some stuff for work and then head home so that she could do the dishes and laundry. She didn't really feel like cooking today so maybe she'd grab something while she was out. And then once she had eaten, done her chores, and did a little bit of work for her website- she was anticipating taking a nice long nap with her kittens curled up to nap with her.

Turning back around, she started to walk again when she suddenly felt the presence of the group of teens that had been standing around just a few mere moments before, and felt her irritation/anxiety spike as the tallest and more muscular of the group suddenly slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her against his side.

It was on the tip of her tongue to snap at him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing when they hit the doors, causing them to swing open with such force that it was surprising that the windows didn't shatter as a gust of cold air danced along her exposed skin causing her to flinch slightly and shiver.

Feeling Sara shiver against his side, Optimus moved his hand slightly to cover her other ear with his hand and press her head against his side to help keep her warm. "Stay close to me and you won't be as cold." Was all he said to her, as if he were trying to explain his actions to her.

Sara merely looked at him as if she would rather run for the hills. And Optimus took a moment to wonder if he had done something to maybe _offend_ the little femme.

Didn't human's help one another when help was needed? He wondered, confused as- after a few minutes of being forced up against his side- Sara slowly began to pull away from him until his arm fell back to his side and she bounded away by several steps before pausing in her escape to turn and give the lot of them an odd look as she flushed a fetching shade of pink and softly muttered the word, 'thanks' and then began walking again.

Their first contact with the femme couldn't be classified as a whopping success. But it did open the door for them as far as future encounters were concerned.

And for the moment, that was really all that mattered.


	3. Chapter 3

The next time any of them encountered their femme, it was during the weekend. After they had all done their school work and were too bored to stay indoors any longer than necessary. Optimus had caught Jazz and Mudflap rough housing in the living room of their temporary home- and had promptly told every one of them to get the hell out of the house before they broke something.

Knowing that Optimus meant business due to his tone, everyone had scurried to do as he bid before he started knocking their heads together to remind them that he was in charge for a reason, one of which was he was the only mech that could actually get them to fucking _behave_.

Of course once they were outside, Optimus decided that as nice as sitting in the house soaking up the silence was, he didn't feel like spending his day indoors either. So as soon as he managed to change out of his sleeping attire, he grabbed his leather jacket, wallet and keys and stepped outside.

The first thing that he noticed was a majority of his mechs were MIA- apparently they had all run for the hills as fast as their holo form bodies would allow. Leaving only Bee and Jazz behind.

Which he didn't really mind since he hated going anywhere without the two. After all Jazz was his second in command. And Bee was his second's, second in command? To be perfectly honest he had never been confused by their group's inner workings until he had taken his humanoid form.

Once that had happened, he'd nearly blown a fuse just thinking about things.

Asking the two if they wanted to do anything, they began to toss out various ideas. One of which was going to the mall (Optimus couldn't stand it there- it was far too crowded for his tastes) to observe humans in one of their natural habitats. Frankly Optimus thought that there was nothing natural about anything that happened at the mall.

The only good things about it were occasionally the food court and a few of the stores. Nothing more.

They had been walking through the neighborhood for the better part of thirty minutes when Jazz noticed their femme just ahead of them. Bee and Optimus had seen her too, however the two had simply not said or even drawn any attention to her.

After all, they couldn't stalk her for a bit to see what she was doing if they drew attention to her, which in turn made them look bad- because hello- stalking was a bad habit of theirs.

Looking their femme over, each of them noticed that her long hair had been cut and no longer fell almost to her waist, now hung just below the middle of her back in layers and curls. She had styled her hair differently today too. Instead of the usual ponytail, braid or hair clip- she had the top part of her hair pulled back and held in place by a silver and crystal butterfly hair barrette, leaving the rest of her hair to fall down her back, and around her shoulders.

She was dressed differently too.

Instead of the usual baggy clothes that usually hid her figure. She was wearing a pair of black cotton leggings with a mid thigh length, form fitting, mint green cotton sweater dress with a black wool scarf around her neck and a small half jacket.

Hearing a low whistle from Jazz, Optimus tore his gaze from the femme's back to look at his second in command as the mech said, " _Damn_ she cleans up good." Optimus was inclined to agree with his friend there, however remained silent just in case she turned and caught the three of them following her.

He didn't want her to know that they were keeping tabs on her, much less checking her out. Damn hormonal holo forms! He thought with a bit of irritation as Sara made her way deftly along the crowded sidewalk until she came to a sudden and abrupt stop.

Which in turn caused the three bots to stop so that the femme wouldn't catch them, red handed, so to speak. Watching the little femme as she seemed to look around as if she were trying to locate something, Optimus was about to step forward and see what she was looking for when a human male in his twenties came out of nowhere and grabbed her arm.

Narrowing their eyes at the way the male was touching their femme, Sara tried to pull her arm free as the guy leaned down and in a slurred voice suggested that she come with him to a hotel and let him put her 'banging body' to use.

The look on Sara's face was both horrified and disgusted as she finally managed to jerk her arm free of his grasp and told him to fuck off. Naturally this didn't go over well with the guy.

In fact he looked downright pissed to have been turned down.

Reaching out he grabbed her again, this time managing to grasp one of her upper arms and pull her close to him so that he could try and kiss her. It was when his lips were mere inches from her own that Optimus had had enough, and quickly moved, placing a hand over the guy's face while he used his other hand to pry the male's hand from Sara's arm and let one of the others gently tug her back out of the way just in case.

"I believe the lady told you to fuck off. Do yourself a favor, and _take the hint_." Optimus said as he pushed the male back with enough force to cause him to stumble back and fall on his ass. Not long after, he cast the group a dark glare before shifting his attention to Sara and spitting angrily.

 _"Fucking whore."_ And then left. Once the three mechs were sure that he was gone they turned their attention to Sara who was pale and a tad bit shaken by what could have gone terribly, terribly wrong for her had Optimus not have intervened on her behalf.

"Are you alright?" Bee asked. Sara was slow to respond, but they could smell her turmoil and fear as she wrapped her arms around her body and hugged herself as Optimus finally said.

"Come. We'll walk you where ever you are heading." It was really the only way to make sure that that bastard male didn't double back and come after her- possibly with friends this time.

Sara twitched slightly as Optimus wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders and waited for her to calm herself down so that she could tell them where they were going. If took several minutes more than it probably should have, but finally she seemed to gradually calm down again and looked around. Vaguely recalling her classmate saying that he and his friends would walk her to her destination.

"Do you know where you were heading?"

"Uh...no, not really. I've never been there before."

"Oh? Is it someplace local?"

"It should be in this area somewhere. Or at least that's what the nurse told me on the phone."

 _"Nurse?"_ The three mechs asked in unison, causing her to look back and forth between them before slowly nodding her head.

"Yeah, nurse. I-I was heading to a doctor's office for an appointment."

"Doctor's office? Appointment?" Bee said to himself. Sounding very much as if he didn't understand what was going on here.

"Are you ill?" Jazz asked curiously.

Sara opened her mouth to say something but then closed her mouth and simply thinned her lips. Why the hell was it any of their business if she was sick or not? Not that she was, per se. Not in the conventional sense anyways. She had been sick off and on for the past three years. Nausea, vomiting, she was unable to eat most foods, suffered from losing weight, running fevers, and from exhaustion and joint pain.

She had gone to several different doctors during that time and had a whole slew of tests run to see what the hell was wrong with her. But no one had been able to find anything- until...her former doctor had suggested that he send some of her tests, documents of her symptoms and a few other things to the doctor that she was trying to find.

And naturally, the new guy had been able to find something right off the bat in one of her stomach X-rays.

A tumor in the general vicinity of her stomach.

It was still unknown if it was cancerous or not- but he had asked that she come in for a check up- and a consultation about what should be done since she had been taking medicine to help her, and it wasn't working.

Optimus seemed to notice her reluctance to say anything more as a what it was, confirmation that she _was_ indeed ill. Saying nothing more about the subject, because it pained him to think of their femme being ill, he instead asked to see anything that might have her doctor's office address on it and then once he had the tiny sticky note in his hand, looked it over and then motioned with his head for her and the others to follow him.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment that they all stepped into Sara's doctor's office, the three mechs automatically hated the place. It was too plain, too white- too... _sterile_. So much so that it was practically disgusting. There were a few silk flower arrangements here and there to liven things up a little bit, but everything else just sucked.

Not only that but it smelled like sickness and disease. It was gross, and Bee and Jazz and Optimus had to fight every instinct that they possessed to reach out and grab Sara and drag her back out of this terrible place. However they managed not to do so- if only just barely- and all three took a seat in a few empty seats in a room just off of the waiting room while Sara signed in.

Once that was done, she walked into the room where they were sitting and gave them a funny look before asking, "What are you doing?"

"Sitting down. Staying." Optimus said as he crossed his legs and rested his hands in his lap.

"Why?" Sara asked curiously. She couldn't help it, their actions of late- especially towards her- were more than a little bit suspicious. However none of them had hurt her, or come across as threatening. Merely... _overwhelming_ to her.

The three looked at the femme, their expressions blank as they tried to think of a legitimate reason why they would stick around in this awful, hellish place when Bee broke the silence with a simple, "Isn't this what friends do? Stick around? Stay? Worry?"

 _"Put up with the good awful smell of antibacterial antiseptic."_ Jazz said suddenly causing the other two mechs to look over at him oddly while Sara thinned her lips to keep herself from smiling. As weird as the guys were, they _did_ have a point.

Waiting around in a doctor's office just to make sure that someone was okay- is what friends did. But to Sara's knowledge she had never really had any friends. She just didn't connect well with other kids. She was too quiet, to solitary. She enjoyed working and taking care of others like her elderly grandparents.

She didn't have an interest in boys- they were too damn immature anyways. She had no interest in sex. She had no interest beyond her work, school, a few choice movies, TV shows and books. Everything else was simply on hold until she was either out of school and in college.

Then she would worry about relationships with stupid boys, se, marriage and kids- which was a whole new can of worms that she didn't want to think on right this minute since she was already beginning to get a headache.

She was about to say something to the three, when all of a sudden her name was called by one of the nurses. Muttering something under her breath about stupid timing, she slowly got to her feet and began to move towards the door when she felt a large hand encircle her small wrist and pull her to a stop.

Looking back at the owner of the hand, she noted that it was the big guy with the weird blue eyes and the longish black hair, that had a hold of her. She waited for a moment to see what he wanted as he slowly released her wrist and sat back in his seat, looking away from her with a slight reddish tint coloring his cheeks.

He was blushing. It took her a second to realize this since her mind had sputtered to a halt just now as she heard him say softly, "We will be here when you finish."

Still kind of in shock all she could really do is nod her head absently as the nurse watching them finally rolled her eyes and then reached out and snagged her hand and began dragging her away.

The second that the two were out of earshot Optimus heard Bee whisper, "I think you broke our femme." Causing him to turn his head to glower at Bee for a moment as the smaller mech held up his hands and non too subtly decided to switch seats and sit across the room from Optimus and Jazz, just to keep himself from being injured if Optimus decided out of the blue to stretch his arm out- and _touch_ him.

The three sat in total silence for the better part of half an hour before Sara finally reappeared and automatically all three focused on their femme's pale face. Absently taking note of the dazed look on her pretty face as a nurse handed her some pamphlets to look over before turning to them and asking softly, "Are you three with her?"

They all nodded their heads slowly, unsure of why the nurse would ask them that question as they each stood up and moved to stand just behind Sara.

"She needs to eat something in the next hour or so and take some pain meds and other stuff. She was also given some pamphlets to go over concerning her upcoming surgery and I think that she's kinda gone into shock. Could you three please make sure that she gets home okay?"

The three mechs were quiet as the nurse spoke. Their minds trying to sort through the information presented to them as Optimus reached out and very gently wrapped his fingers around Sara's nape and after giving the nurse a curt nod, began to maneuver their femme out of the doctor's office.

Once outside on the sidewalk, Optimus reached out and carefully took the pamphlets from Sara's numb fingers and looked them over for a moment before asking, "Your surgery- When is it? And why do you need it?" The pamphlets only told him so much. But otherwise were fairly informative about what was going to take place and what needed to be done during recovery.

Something that he made a mental note of remembering for future reference.

"I've been sick for the past three years. I've been in pain, suffering fevers, achy joints. I've been throwing up almost every time I try eating, losing weight. I thought it was just stress from school and work and taking care of my grandparents but-" She paused speaking for a moment as they started walking again.

"But?" Optimus prompted, waiting as patiently as he could for her to finish speaking.

"I've had a lot of appointments and been checked and tested by so many doctors, but the damn problem was right in front of them all along and they were too stupid to see it-" She sounded a bit pissed off. Not that the mechs could blame her any if that's really how things had gotten this far. "But apparently I have a tumor or something growing along the inside of my stomach. It's big enough to cause pain and a few other things, and surgery is needed to remove it and check to make sure that it isn't cancerous."

Optimus was quiet as he and Bee and Jazz sorted through the information hat she had just given them before he muttered, "I see. So the surgery is necessary then." It wasn't so much a question. Despite how it sounded, Optimus had taken several crash courses on the human anatomy and what could injure, damage, maim and kill a human thanks entirely to Ratchet's pestering. So he knew all too well what would happen if she didn't have the surgery.

The tumor would continue to grow, possibly rupture, causing the acid in her stomach to poison her body until the issue was either fixed or she died from a staff infection or something. And then there was the much slower way to die. She didn't have the surgery, and because of it her condition deteriorated badly enough that she wound up hospitalized and inevitably lost so much weight that she would barely weigh sixty pounds before her body finally gave out.

He thinned his lips together for a moment or so, his thoughts grim as he silently vowed that that would _not_ happen to her.

She was their femme. And as such they would protect her even from this.

"The nurse said that you needed to eat something..."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess so."

"Do you have any preferences?" Optimus asked as his thumb ghosted across the soft skin of her nape, causing her to shiver slightly as she tried to focus on his question.

"I-I do. I was thinking of making something at home."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Lately I can only manage to eat a little bit of fruit, turkey and cheese sandwiches, alfredo or pesto flavored pasta, alfredo pizza- I have some stuff at home to make a alfredo pizza..."

"Good. We're taking you home and then I'll fix your pizza for you." Optimus said, his tone brooked no argument- though he secretly knew that she would argue with him. And she did. But after he pointed out that she'd had a little bit of a rough day so far, and didn't trust her not to burn her home down- she conceded defeat.

Though she wasn't exactly happy about it.


	5. Chapter 5

To say that the three mech's had more or less been dying to see the inside of Sara's home since a few days after they had claimed her as their femme and started to learn what they could about her- was of course, a gross understatement. To say that they were beyond shocked to learn that Sara had been living, _literally_ , right next door to them- just a mile in a half down the way- was yet another shock.

But one that at least two of the mech's wound up kicking themselves for not knowing once Optimus turned his eerie blue eyes on them and more or less gave them the silent equivalent of- _We will be speaking of this later._ Because apparently the fact that she was one of their many, many neighbors simply hadn't occurred to any of the Big bot's little spy's.

I mean they had had her home address, but had never really put one and one together and passed the information along, so maybe that was why Optimus was a tad bit peeved with them at the moment.

Stepping into the spacious two story building that their femme called home, the three were a tad bit amused to find that the front half of the ground floor was arranged to look like a jewelry and graft store. There were tables, paintings, hair ornaments, semi precious sterling silver and various types of gold jewelry, beaded stuff, costume stuff ect.

A majority of the stuff was color coordinated.

While the rest was locked in glass top display cases. There was a little desk against one of the walls behind some of the cases along with a closet- they assumed held boxes and other supplies, and a cash register sat on another small table.

Beyond that was a small hallway that led to her living quarters. Stepping beyond the small hallway and into the spacious living room attached to the nice modern style kitchen, the three couldn't help but look around at the place taking note of various things ranging from the furniture (dark oak coffee tables, shelves, and a desk in the far corner) to the large velvety looking dark blue couch, recliner, the forty eight millimeter flat screen TV, the four shelves of movies, CD's, a medium sized boom box, several large lamps.

The walls of her living room and kitchen were painted a off sapphire blue color with deep red white, and gold colored cherry blossoms.

"Whoa." Jazz breathed as he took a closer look at the paint on the walls. Whoever had done the paint job for their femme had a fantastic way of making their art practically jump off of the walls. The flowers looked like they were actually alive!

"Cool." Bee muttered before making a beeline for the shelves on either side of the TV. Apparently he wanted to check out their femme's entertainment materials.

Optimus merely shook his head at the two and slowly shrugged off his jacket and set it over the arm of the couch before turning to Sara and asking, "Will you show me where you keep your things for making pizza." It would be easier to just scan the kitchen area, however this was not his home and scanning would be considered an invasion of privacy among other things, and he simply couldn't chance being caught at it.

Especially when it might freak her out.

"Sure," Sara said as she took her jacket off and set it in the recliner along with her scarf and then walked towards the kitchen with Optimus trailing along behind her. They got about half way there when she paused for a moment to look at her phone and muttered, "Dammit grandma." Mere moments before the land line rung.

Cocking his head because he'd seen no signs of a caller ID on or around the phone as she picked it up and put it to her ear, he decided to watch/eavesdrop on her conversation as she said. "Hi grandma, how was your visit?"

Blinking as his sharp ears made out the sound of an elderly woman on the other end of the line, Optimus remained silent as Sara walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and began to pull things out for him, all while talking.

"Yes, yes I know that Aunty Morgana is dead. Yes I know she won the argument... Why are you arguing with a dead woman anyways? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well just because someone is a bitch in life don't mean that they can be one in death grandma. How's grandpa? You didn't. W-Why would you- _Because you know what sweets do to him!_ No it isn't funny! He going to be bouncing off of the walls for hours now."

Sara sighed and lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose for a moment before saying tiredly. "Yeah, yeah okay- but when his heart explodes don't come crying to me. Hn? The doctor's visit went fine. I'm going to have to have surgery on my stomach... They found a tumor or something and need to remove it before it get's worse. Yes. Yes they are going to check it for that. Hn? Yes I will be missing school for about two weeks or so. Yeah, I plan to speak to my teachers on Monday. The store... I'll just close it down for a little while. No. No grandpa isn't going to run it- the last time he ran my store he tried to mail some sort of explosive device. Yes, yes I know that his memory isn't so good."

"I'm aware of that grandma. Yeah. Hn? No. Look I'll be over in a little while to cook something for you two. Yeah, I was thinking about making some vegetable soup and potato salad and fried chicken. Yes. Yes. I will not forget the Italian salad dressing that you both like on your fried chicken. Okay. I love you guys too. _Bye_."

Once she hung up the phone, Optimus glanced over at her with a small smile of amusement and said, "Your grandmother sounds...interesting."

"My grandmother could give the joker from the Batman movies a run for his money," Sara muttered as she pulled out a chair at the island in the middle of the kitchen so that she could sit down and watch him work for a moment before asking, "What you guys said back at the doctor's office..." Optimus looked up from his task for a moment to lock eyes with her. "About...being friends. I-Is that true?"

Her voice sounded very hesitant, vulnerable and just slightly reluctant to his ears. But there was also a tinge of hope to it that seemed very much out of place. He couldn't imagine what was going through her head, with her grandparents, her illness and upcoming surgery and such- but in his opinion she needed to hear him say with total and absolute honesty- that they were friends.

Even if they didn't really know each other well or speak much. They had a sort of companionable silence going.

"We are."

"You guys have never really talked to anyone before-"

"I'm talking to you now."

"But it doesn't make sense that-"

"Not everything in the world makes sense. Sometimes you just have to roll with whatever hand you've been dealt. If you really want to explain why we're friends- try looking at it this way. Your alone, and obviously scared of whatever the future may bring. Think of us as the ones who have come to watch over you in your time of need." It was silly to hear himself saying such things. But he doubted that she would really understand what being claimed by them would entirely entail.

She was, after all, only human.

Whereas he and his friends were...not.

"Careful, you're starting to sound like a Hallmark card." Sara said with a slight curve of her lips. Optimus's eyes flickered to her face again, noting with satisfaction that she was somewhat smiling at her own joke. And he decided to see if he could get her to laugh.

Shrugging his broad shoulders absently as he mentally went over various ways to reply, he finally settled for, "Well I do get a great deal of Hallmark cards to read. Keeps me from being too terribly bored." Causing her to quickly duck her head as she snorted softly, her amusement growing by the second.

 _This guy is alright._


	6. Chapter 6

It took the pizza about forty five minutes in total to make and cook. And during the time they spent waiting on it, Sara played the part of a hostess very well. Politely offering Optimus, Bee and Jazz any kind of drinks or foods that she had in an effort to make them a bit more comfortable.

But once everything was said and done, the only thing that really seemed to work on them was being invited to watch movies or something. Sara's words, not theirs.

And since Bee was the only one aside from the femme that had actually checked out the movie collection that she had- he was the only one who could tell them what was good and what wasn't. Luckily for them- their femme seemed to have a taste for dark, scary, thriller, horror type movies.

She had everything ranging from The Shallows, Jaws part one, two and three, to Deep Blue Sea, Anaconda part one and two, Congo, King Kong, a ton of Godzilla movies ranging from old to new, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Halloween movies, Jeepers Creeper's one, two and three, the Resident Evil movies (both the live action and the animated), all of the Avenger and Spider-Man movies, Red, The Assassin's Bodyguard, Supernatural the TV series, Smallville, Star Trek the old and newer ones, the Night of the living dead movies, the Howling, a movie called The Bunny and a bunch more that none of them had even heard of before.

And after some debate, which quickly seemed to snowball into a full blown shouting match between Bee and Jazz, Optimus reached out and grabbed a movie- or TV series- he didn't really pay any attention to which one he'd grabbed. And put it in her DVD player.

Turns out, he'd grabbed a Bruce Willis movie called Red. Whatever the hell that was. Which caused both Jazz and Bee to fall silent and sit down as the movie played.

Turns out that the movie he had picked was about trained killers doing really weird stuff after retirement. But that small detail aside, it was a fairly good movie from the- hour- that he had seen of it.

Not long after the movies started, the pizza was done, and Sara managed to eat several slices before her stomach started to protest the amount of food inside of it. However despite her stomach troubling her, she managed to keep everything down and simply curled up next to Optimus on the couch and about ten minutes after she had eaten and taken her medicine- she dozed off.

Optimus knew this from the way her body suddenly seemed to slump sideways and he practically wound up supporting her body with his shoulder just to keep her semi upright and out of his lap.

"She's out." Bee said in a hushed tone as he looked over at the femme. Optimus made a soft humming sound and carefully shifted himself so that he could gather the girl up in his arms and settle her in his lap with her head resting against his torso, just underneath his chin as he motioned for Bee to put in another movie once the one that they had been watching was done.

After that had been done and the new movie had started, Optimus waited several moments before finally standing up with Sara in his arms and made quick work of scanning her home to find how to get to her room. Once that was done, he carried her upstairs to her bedroom, carefully nudged the door open with one of his feet and then carried her inside and gently placed her on her bed and made her comfortable by removing her shoes and then tucking her in and then taking a moment to brush her dark hair away from her face, causing her to stir slightly before settling back down again.

Once he was sure that she had gone back to sleep and wouldn't stir again for a while, he left the room, carefully closing it behind him so that the noise wouldn't bother her and then made his way back to the others and was about to tell them to leave everything but the garbage from their drinks where it was so that they could leave, when he suddenly stopped and instead told Jazz and Bee to enjoy the move and then went back into the kitchen and began pulling out stuff to make fried chicken, potato salad, vegetable soup materials, the pots and pans to make it all in, plus the Italian dressing that her grandparents had requested be put on their chicken.

It took a little bit of doing, and in the end, Bee and Jazz had decided to abandon the movie to join him- but between the three of them they had managed to make everything. Though Jazz kept arguing that the vegetable soup was lacking in saltiness. Which had in turn caused Bee to hand Optimus the salt so that he could hide it before Jazz accidentally ruined Sara's grandparent's food.

Once they were done- and the food was put in containers and placed in the fridge and the dishes had been washed- Optimus found a little note pad and an ink pen and wrote that they had stayed a little longer than necessary, and he apologized for that, however during their stay- she had dozed off and they had been reluctant to wake her.

So they had taken it upon themselves to fix her grandparents their food. Everything was sitting in her fridge, and the mess that they had made had been cleaned up. They would let themselves out and lock up the place behind them, and would maybe check on her again in a few days.

And right below the note Optimus, Bee and Jazz wrote down their individual cell numbers and then quietly collected their things and then left to go home since the others were no doubt upset that they had been gone for so long without being updated on their location or something.

Which meant that their return home was much like walking into a war zone.

But none of them seemed to mind it overly much because today had been a good day.


	7. Chapter 7

Sunday morning, Optimus found himself waking up at five am. As usual. Having been an alien military leader for several thousands of years- he was unused to sleeping all night and simply relaxing. Sure he had his rare moments when he felt comfortable enough to do so, but it was usually few and far between.

Rising from his bed, he took a moment to stretch and comb his fingers through his short-ish black hair and then after doing that, he simply climbed out of bed to slip on a sweater and some jogging pants so that he could go about his usual morning routine.

He'd leave the house, run a few miles, return, shower, use the...toilet? Wash his hands, brush his teeth and then redress in clean clothing that didn't smell of sweat and then grab a bottle of water or juice and a protein bar and then leave again.

This had been his usual 'human' routine ever since he and the others had taken on their current forms and began to assimilate themselves into society as carbon based life forms.

Sundays were considered his down time, now. Ratchet would wrangle the others into a semi functioning state an hour or so after he left, make sure that they each ate, checked their holo form bodies for any signs of illness and computer viruses and such and then he would give each of them some money to leave the house to do whatever they wished as long as they weren't involved in anything illegal nor managed to get themselves arrested.

After that, he too would spend his day off simply curled up somewhere either binging on junk food until he got sick or watching TV until he broke either it or the remote. _Again_. Not that Optimus minded overly much since they had more than enough money to replace the TV or remote if they needed too. He just wished that the other mech would be a tad bit more careful with their stuff.

Not all of it was easily obtainable. In fact some of it, much like the money that they used to live off of- was partially stolen. But of course he used the term rather loosely since it had all been theirs when they had been working with the government, up until the human's had turned on them and begun to hunt them down.

The first thing that the human government had done- was frozen the Autobot's bank account that they used to purchase tech and other things that they had used to fix their injuries and such. Which had proven to be a mistake for the organics since Optimus had taken a great deal of vindictive pleasure in not only unfreezing their account, but moving the money and while he was at it he took several hundred million extra just to be a jerk about things, but he hadn't kept that part of the money- at least not all of it.

Instead he had sent some of it to various victim's and the families that had gotten caught in the crosshairs of his and Megatron's war so that the government would not be able to trace it to any one location.

Besides, he felt somewhat guilty about the humans that had gotten killed, injured, or lost everything because of his war. And before the humans had turned on him he had been trying to negotiate a way to take care of them.

But many people in the government were petty, selfish and cruel and cared nothing for their own kind. Leaving many of the victims to suffer debts, lose their homes, their jobs, in many cases some had even lost their young sparklings! An unforgivably act in and of itself since Optimus and the rest of the Autobots were among the last of their kind. All of them mechs, incapable of giving new life.

It was as sad as it was maddening really.

Humans had so much going for them- and yet the almost always squandered what they had been gifted with.

Sighing, Optimus walked out of his bedroom and through the house. Heading for the living room. When he and the others had first taken on their holo form, humanoid appearances, they had lived on the streets for a while. Mainly because they hadn't had a home yet and had had to search various area's in the current city that they resided in for just the right kind of place.

It needed to be big enough to accomodate numbers between six and fifteen. The rooms had to be spacious enough to give each person their own living space yet allow them to be comfortable in such cramped quarters. They had lucked out when the building that they lived in now- a former two story apartment building- had been put up for sale.

Optimus had taken one look at the place and saw it's potential as a home and snatched it up. They had had to get rid of a bunch of walls and bathrooms and such just to make it what they needed. But in the end everything had worked out and with the other Autobot's helping, Optimus had managed to turn the place into a home.

It wasn't Ritz kind of pretty, but they liked it.

Breezing through the living room and on to the kitchen, Optimus grabbed his bottle of...juice and a protein bar and then slipped out the front door and gently closed and locked it behind him. As near as he could tell, he had two hours to run around before Sara would be up and open her store.

With that firmly in mind, he stepped away from his home and looked around the empty streets for a moment before he decided on a direction to run in and took off at a nice brisk jog to help kill time and clear his mind a little bit.


	8. Chapter 8

Two in a half hours later, Optimus finished up his morning routine and was standing outside of Sara's store just as she unlocked the door and flipped the sign. Moving back so that he could come in, she noted that his hair was wet and sticking up slightly here and there. Almost as if he had been in to much of a hurry to bother brushing it before heading over.

It was kind of cute. And she couldn't help but wonder if he even realized how hot he looked with his hair wet and tousled looking.

"Morning." He rasped as he entered her shop and gently closed the door behind him.

"Morning to you to. What brings you here so early?" _Or at all_. She wondered as he moved over to where she was standing and paused just shy of actually, probably honest to god stepping on her. His superior height allowing him to tower over her for a moment or so before he moved away from her and a little further into the store before answering.

"Wanted to see how you were doing today."

"Oh," Well didn't she just feel like an idiot for asking? "I'm fine."

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes."

"Taken your medicine?"

"Yes dad. I've done that too." Sara said and nearly jumped out of her skin when he turned around to look at her, his eerie blue eyes narrowed somewhat and his lips were thinned in what could have been displeasure. _Was he actually offended_ _that she had called him 'dad'?_ She wondered. Because in her defense he sort of fussed like a father would over his kid.

"Did you manage to feed your grandparents yesterday evening?" He finally asked after a length of time. His tone sounding slightly more _irked_ than she ever recalled hearing it.

"Uh...yeah. I wanted to thank you for that..." And for tucking her into her bed, and for cleaning up the mess that his friends had made, and for cooking her grandparents their food and then leaving and locking up behind him.

"There's no need. You had a rough day." He said as if that explained his actions as a whole.

"Yes but you didn't have to go out of your way like that." She wasn't trying to be nor sound ungrateful. Truly she wasn't just...didn't know what to say to him right now. She wasn't used to people being nice to her aside from her grandparents.

"I didn't," Before tacking on, "But I wanted to." As he turned away again so that she wouldn't notice the slightly embarrassed flush that was coloring his face. He had enough people to deck whenever he was ribbed about his blushes, he didn't need his femme to join the ranks of the other morons.

"Okay then." Sara said as she moved to go sit behind her display cases across the room, where her desk and register were located. Not realizing that Optimus was trailing along behind her until she started to sit and a large hand grasped her chair and pulled it out for her, causing her to jump before she realized that it was just him.

He stared at her for a moment, his eerie blue eyes studying her as her heart beat thundered in his ears while he tried to decipher just why she was acting so damn jumpy around him.

He hadn't done anything to threaten, intimidate or harm her. So he didn't really understand her reaction to him.

"Are you well?" He asked curiously as he tilted his head somewhat.

"I-I'm fine."

"You're jumpy."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that he would be too in her shoes, but somehow she couldn't really imagine him as a jumpy or skittish person. So she simply kept her mouth shut before she wound up offending him again. Frowning slightly she muttered a quick apology and then held up one finger as the door to her shop opened and one of her regulars walked in.

"Sara! Who loves you girl?"

Optimus watched as his femme smiled at the man before replying. "You do Jonny!"

The man laughed in response. "You better believe it angel. Now, I'm here to pick up that piece that you were repairing for me-" The man that Optimus assumed was named Jonny said as he looked in the direction of where Sara had been a moment ago and did a double take when he noted Optimus standing there watching him like a predator watched it's prey.

Letting out a low whistle Jonny looked him over carefully. Sizing him up as if he felt he were his competition whereas Optimus gave the male a quick once over, the cold look in his eyes practically screaming- _Touch a hair on her head and I'll put you in the ground!_

"I didn't know that you had a boyfriend baby. When did you get him?" Jonny asked curiously and grinned as the tall dark haired teen moved to stand net to Sara and slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and very gently covered her mouth before she could respond.

She flailed for a moment, almost in a comical fashion as Optimus smiled at the human male and held out his hand as he said, "Hi. I'm Sara's new friend Optimus." And waited patiently for the older male to extend his hand and grasp his own. However the human male wasn't as dumb as he appeared apparently.

He took one look at Optimus's hand and snorted before asking, "Son, just how damn dumb do you think I am? I'm not about to shake hands with someone that I know has no problem with crushing my bones because he feels threatened."

Optimus gave a small humorless laugh before plainly stating, "You are no threat to me."

"Then what's with the possessive streak, kid? This isn't a contest to see who's dick is bigger. Sara's starting to turn blue, by the way."

Optimus glanced down at Sara and noted that the male wasn't wrong.

For a few moment's he'd forgotten how big his hand was, he had accidentally covered her nose when he had covered up her mouth to keep her from speaking. Abruptly releasing her so that she could breathe again, he took a moment to scoop her up in his arms and carry her over to her desk and sit her in her chair before moving back some to give her space as she wheezed.

"I-I saw a light...and my late great, great something was standing there saying 'Come on, don't leave. Step into the light. It's pretty!' and you-" She pointed to Optimus for a moment before growling in outrage, "You nearly killed me! What the _hell_ were you thinking?!"

Optimus merely thinned his lips to keep from reprimanding her for her behavior.

He had only done what he had done to warn the male off since he had been able to smell his lust for his femme and hadn't liked it. He hadn't intended to accidentally smother her. He just...sometimes _forgot_ how big his hands were as opposed to how small and delicate her body and features were.

Thinning his lips again because he didn't exactly know how to handle this situation, he slowly moved away from Sara and went to stand in the corner as she slowly got up and with an irritated growl that could rival one of his own pissed off growls- she went to give Jonny the piece that she had fixed for him and get her payment while Optimus stood there watching the two interact and wondering idly if he could get away with making the man disappear when his sharp ears picked up Jonny saying, "Now, now, hon. Don't be too upset with your friend. He's just a tad bit jealous and isn't used to feeling that way."

"He has nothing to be jealous about. We don't have that sort of relationship." Sara gritted out from between clenched teeth causing the male to laugh softly.

"Maybe you don't yet. But something tells me that you and that young man would make a nice couple. One things is for sure- he's seen shit that you can't imagine. You can tell by the way that he looks at others and acts. A young man like him would know how to take care of you and treat you like a queen. The fact that he feels even a little bit possessive and protective of you right now is just the start. Mark my words girly. That young man was born to be yours, just like you were born to be his."

"You a hopeless romantic Jonny."

"Indeed I am," The male agreed with a wide grin before saying. "And now I will take my hopelessly romantic ass out of here and go prepare things for later tonight."

"Finally proposing eh."

Jonny just grinned and said, "When your young man decides it's time to ask you the big question, call me. I'll help him plan things right." After which the male turned and with a wave at Sara and a quickly mouthed, _You better take care of_ _her._ Towards Optimus, he left.

The second he was out of the store, Sara turned to glare at him with such fierceness that Optimus almost climbed the wall as his little femme stomped over to him and poked him in the chest with her index finger and growled, "You- if you are going to stay here while I work then make yourself useful and do something like restocking the boxes in the closet over there." She said as she pointed to the closet in question and watched as the tall and intimidating teen inched away from her with his back against the wall almost as if he were afraid that she may jump him from behind.

Huffing once he disappeared into the closest to do as she bid she went back to her desk and sat down to think a bit about what Jonny had said to her.


	9. Chapter 9

Optimus wasn't usually in the habit of fearing retaliation from another. Much less running away from them. He was a Prime after all, the last of his line of great leaders. Running and hiding simply wasn't in him. However he had felt it the best way to handle Sara's being upset with him.

He had figured that maybe if he hid out, did as she had ordered (dear gods did it get him hot when she had ordered him around) then maybe, just maybe she would have enough time to cool her temper and he could somehow manage to weasel his way back into her good graces.

However he had no idea how long it would take her temper to cool. So once he finished stocking the closet shelves as she had told him too, he had sat down on the floor and waited. First one hour- during which she got at least seven more customers. And then another two hours passed- and the lunchtime crowd began to swarm the store.

And finally after what he internally estimated to be close to four hours, just when he was beginning to think himself pathetic, the door opened and Sara peeked in. "Oh you are still here." She said as her pale green eyes locked with his eerie blue ones as she said. "Sorry for leaving you hanging like I did. I got kind of busy and wasn't sure if you were still here or not because of how quiet it was. But since I just closed the store down for lunch- I thought I'd check and make sure if you were here or not, and if you were then I was going to ask you if you wanted to come out and maybe grab something to eat with me..." Most people would have had an issue with how quickly she had spoken, however he wasn't one of them.

Rising to his feet he regarded her carefully, as if trying to gauge her mood before he asked, "You still mad at me?"

"No. I usually get over my anger fairly quickly. Unless your one of my parents or one of their friends."

"Oh." So he had basically tucked tail and hid for nothing? He wondered before finally saying. "Where were you wanting to grab lunch?"

"There's an all you can eat place barely a block from here-" Ah Antonio's all you can eat buffet, he knew it well. They had good food, friendly server's- the restaurant itself was pretty nice too.

"Antonio's?" He asked just to make sure. At her slight nod, he gave her a slight nod to confirm that he wished to go with her. It would give him more of a chance to see what she was like when she wasn't at home.

"Alright, let me go and grab my wallet." Sara said as she turned to leave when Optimus reached out and quickly grasped her shoulder in his hand and pulled her to a stop and said.

"No. I'll pay."

"That's nice and all, but I never go anywhere without my wallet." She said as he slowly released her.

"Very well, but I'm still paying." He said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument. She looked at him for a moment and wondered why he was being somewhat pushy about this. To her knowledge only guys dating someone payed for their significant other when they went out.

And she wasn't his significant other. In fact he didn't owe her anything.

"O-Okay." She said as she quickly left him before he could grab her again. Walking down the hall to her living room, she grabbed her wallet off of the coffee table in the living room and then walked back to rejoin him.

On the walk from the shop to Antonio's, Optimus made sure to stay close to Sara so that he wouldn't lose her in the crowded streets. And the one time the girl found trouble for herself was with some local kids with far too much time on their hands and absolutely no manners whatsoever.

Optimus managed to save her simply by reaching out and wrapping his arms around his little femme in a protective manner while he sent a glare in the direction of the 'mouth' of the small five male group. Using his body to shield her as he intimidated the small group into leaving her alone before resuming their trip.

Once at Antonio's the two walked inside of the cozy little all you can eat restaurant and quickly grabbed a table. Once seated, Optimus felt it necessary to ask Sara if she often found herself the center of unwanted male attention.

He wasn't asking to be an ass, or to make her feel bad. He really wasn't. However he was genuinely curious and felt that the question needed asking.

Sara gave him an strange look for a moment before saying that she had never really noticed she was getting any unwanted male attention until the other day when he and his friends had walked her to the doctor's office.

He was quiet as she then went on to say, other boys usually wanted what another possessed. Whatever that meant. Barely a minute later their server walked over and greeted them and then asked them what they wanted to eat and drink.

Optimus got himself a water while Sara got herself a raspberry tea and they both got the buffet. And while they were up getting their food, Optimus stuck close to Sara to see what she got since he imagined that her stomach would likely begin acting up on her.

Strangely enough, she got herself a plate full of salad swimming in buttermilk ranch dressing. Her second plate had a mountain of mashed potato's- also swimming in ranch dressing- and some fried chicken. And while they had been getting their food, their drinks and some sweet bread rolls had been delivered to their table along with some honey spread.

Upon returning to their booth, he sat there for several moments and watched as Sara tucked into her food and began wolfing it down at a speed that both shocked/amazed him. But also worried him since she was barely pausing to chew anything, and could wind up choking on something.

Once she finished off her potato's and chicken, Optimus picked up his fork and knife and slowly began eating as well. He was oddly curious about the reason behind her feeling the need to drown everything in salad dressing, and while he wanted to ask about it- he didn't wish to offend her to the point where she stopped eating.

So he waited until they had both eaten as much as they could. He with nine plates of various foods and Sara with five. Surprisingly enough she seemed to still be okay once she finished.

Sitting back and folding his hands over his taunt stomach, Optimus regarded her and what she had managed to eat before finally asking. "Why did you eat so much stuff with salad dressing on it?"

To which she replied. "Because at this point I need the calories more than an average person. My doctor and I theorized that my need to drown everything in ranch is probably why I'm not in the hospital with a feeding tube right now."

He blinked at this bit of information and was unable to tell whether or not she was pulling his leg and made a mental note to make sure that she had plenty of ranch dressing, mashed potato's and chicken in her diet until she was better. Then he would have to have the others help him wean her off of the stuff before she suffered a major heart attack or stroke.

He said nothing more about the subject once he noted that she seemed to shut down a little bit once he had asked his question, and waved their server over and asked for the bill. Ten minutes later the two walked out of Antonio's side by side and headed back towards the shop to reopen and get some more work done.


	10. Chapter 10

The moment that the two finished up working in the shop, Sara turned the sign and then locked the door and leaned against it with a tired sigh before pushing away from it and walking back across the room to where Optimus stood doing his new current job, counting the days earnings.

"How'd we do?"

"Ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy six dollars and ninety two cents. Not bad for a day's work." He said as he started to set the money aside when she stopped him with a hand on his arm. Looking down at her, she gave him a small smile and then took the money from him and then counted out three separate stacks. Some to pay him for his work for the day. Some to put towards her home, the bills, groceries and such for the next month or so. And the third stack was to go back into the store.

Once she was done, she held out six hundred dollars for him to take. Causing him to eye it for a moment before asking, "What is this?"

"Payment for your work today."

Why on earth she was bothering to pay him anything when he had never asked for it. And had spent four hours sitting in her storage closet avoiding her- he didn't know. And as much as he would have liked to question her on the payment, or at the very least the amount that she was giving him since it hardly seemed fair that he get so much...he got the feeling that if he didn't take it, he'd wind up on her shit list.

Reaching out he slowly took the bills from her and carefully folded it and then slipped it into his pants pocket as she put one part of the rest in a red leather pouch and the other half in what looked like her wallet.

"Great, all I have to do tomorrow evening is deposit this and the half that I have in my wallet in the bank and go I should be set to from there," She said as she smiled up at him before asking, "What are you going to do now?"

He was tempted to look around the shop and maybe buy something from her so that he wouldn't have so much of her money. But decided to try that the next time she decided to pay him an outrageous amount for practically doing nothing aside from a few minor things here and there. And instead merely shrugged his shoulders.

He knew that he should leave her to do what she needed to do and maybe rest up a little bit, and head home to check up on the others. But for some reason he didn't understand he was simply reluctant to leave her.

"I-I'm not sure." He said a little weakly before looking away from her.

"Then why don't you stay for a little while longer. I need to fix dinner for myself and my grandparents anyways. You could watch some more movies. While I was out delivering my grandparent's food to them, I came across some new DVD's... They're all stand up comedy but I had kind of wanted to add to my current collection anyways."

"Who are the comics?" He asked, curious to know what sort of comedy people she was interested in.

"Let me see. Christopher Titus, Robin Williams, Tom Papa, Lewis Black, Iliza Shlesinger, Kathleen Madigan, Jeff Dunham, Leslie Jones... And I think that's it s far."

"Which one would you suggest?"

"I like them all so I'm not sure. Besides, I'd have to know your really well to make a suggestion."

"You mean that you'd need to know my sense of humor."

"Yeah."

"Very well. Lets go...delve into uncharted territories."

"Uncharted for you, you mean. I've already seen each DVD at least six times."

"There aren't enough hours in the day to allow such a thing. And they are uncharted for me, so if I go down- I'm dragging you with me." Optimus said playfully as he ushered her from the shop and down the hall to the living room where he gently pushed her down onto the couch with a soft chuckle of amusement.

Reaching over he picked up a few of the DVD's and held them up as he asked. "Which one should we start with?"

"I still don't know you or your sense of humor well enough to-"

"Then start by using yours. Which one do you like the most right now?"

"Oh. I think it's a toss up between Lewis black, Christopher, Iliza, Robin and Tom. So any one of them would do." She said as he looked at the DVD's for a moment before silently nodding his head and picking one.

It was one of Iliza Shlesinger's comedy specials. And once it was in the DVD player, and playing, Sara got up and walked into the kitchen to fix some pop corn and grab them a couple of drinks before returning to find Optimus sitting comfortably where she had been sitting mere moments prior.

"Here." She said in a low tone as she handed him the popcorn and set his drink down on the coffee table, seeing as he was currently engrossed in the DVD. He nodded to her and began to pick at the popcorn a little bit. His mind going over everything said on the DVD as he asked himself, was this really his femme's idea of entertainment? He didn't get it, but considering the various sounds of amusement that escaped Sara's throat, he supposed that it wasn't all bad.

Turning his head for a moment to look at her, he noted that she was more than stunningly pretty when she smiled. And he would have to see to it that she smiled more in the future.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the late start today- I would have updated earlier but I was taking care of my dad who just had major heart surgery and accidentally fell down and hurt my arm.**

 **If the chapter suck's I'm sorry. Maybe I can redo it, maybe not. It's just a filler chap anyways.**

 **(***********************************************************************************************************************)**

Optimus and Sara watched seven DVD's together before eight pm, the first three being by the comedian Iliza Shlesinger, which gave Optimus a small inside look into a female's mind before he felt the need to ask questions. A majority of which Sara simply told him 'no' too until he just stopped asking and simply sat there. The next two DVD's had been one of Robin Williams, and another by Lewis Black. Followed by Christopher Titus.

All of whom were funny people with dark-ish outlooks on life.

Sometime between the fifth and seventh DVD, Sara began cooking dinner herself and him- steak, mashed potato's with baked potato fixin's, a salad with three different dressings (one of which was a big thing of buttermilk ranch) and some cut up fruit. Whereas her grandparents was getting home made chicken salad, mac-n-cheese, and some cut up fruit.

So once the sixth DVD was done, she peeked out of the kitchen to ask if he wanted to join her for dinner. Optimus would have liked to refuse and tell her to not go to the trouble, but once he found out that she had already cooked for him- he didn't dare to refuse. He would have offended if he did.

So once the seventh DVD was in the player, playing- she handed him some plates, glasses and forks/knives and told him to set the coffee table with them.

A little uncertain about what he was doing, he decided not to question her and quickly set the coffee table in the living room and then returned to the kitchen to help her carry stuff out.

Once everything was laid out on the table, he looked at her to see what she would do next and was oddly surprised when she sat down on the floor across from him and began fixing both of their plates, occasionally pausing to ask him what he wanted on his plate.

Causing a strangely warm feeling to emanate from the vicinity of his spark.

The two ate together and talked about small things. Optimus knew more about her than she knew about him, so she asked him questions like what his favorite past time was- it varied from one extreme to another. But he stuck with normal 'human' answers since he couldn't just say, Cracking Decepticon skulls together and kicking Megatron's ass.

Though that _was_ a favorite past time for him.

She asked him his favorite music- jazz/classic rock- his favorite color/colors- black, red and blue...go figure. His favorite foods- he had none as of yet since he hadn't completely tried all that much human food. What did he do to relax? He either ran or kicked the crap out of the person stressing him.

Of course she looked at him rather oddly when he said that, so he tried to deflect from the question by acting like he had been joking.

How old was he? He counted with the same question and got a, "It's rude to ask a girl her age." To which he asked, "And it isn't rude to ask a guy?" Causing her to laugh softly and shake her head so he had to take a moment to slowly calculate his human age as around seventeen.

What was his favorite childhood memory? His response was looking at the stars and wondering if there was life in the universe. Sara responded with a- "I thought I was abducted by alien's once...turns out that I was sort of kidnapped by my grandpa's Mexican friend when I had a really, really high fever and was delirious."

Optimus snorted and quickly placed a hand over his mouth to keep her from seeing his smile of amusement.

She asked if he had ever had any pets. He merely thinned his lips to keep from blurting out Jazz's name. Because at one point he had been so pissed at him that he had demoted him from his second in command to pet. It had only lasted for a week, but Jazz had been thoroughly incensed by the demotion.

Due to her questions time seemed to pass much more quickly, or at the very least seemed like it did. And before he knew it- it was eight pm and he needed to leave her.

They said their goodbye's and he quietly slipped out, feeling a little badly about not sticking around to help with the dishes. However he didn't bother going home right away, instead he walked several blocks to the local market and purchased as much buttermilk ranch and meats and potato's and fruits as he could for three hundred dollars and then started back towards home, however stopped at a local Pizza Hut to grab the others something for dinner since he saw no point in cooking for them because he had already eaten.

Not long after he stepped back out onto the streets with five large pizza's ranging from plain cheese, to meat lovers to two supreme's and one Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple, and started walking again. The food would be cool by the time he got home, but at least no one would starve, he mused as he walked passed Sara's home and made a mental note to deliver everything that he had bought for her first thing in the morning while it was still cold out to keep the meats and fruits from going bad.


	12. Chapter 12

Monday morning Sara walked out of her home to go to school after properly securing the funds to get her through the next month or so, and for her shop and promptly found herself tripping over- and falling and hitting the pavement because of some stuff piled up just an inch or so from her door.

Laying on her side for a moment as she tried to ignore the painful tingle in her shoulder and the bruising that she felt forming on her ribs, she slowly turned her head to glare at the stuff that she had tripped over and blinked at what she found.

About a pound in a half of frozen meats, steak, hamburger, chicken, and some pork chops. Seven large bottles and two huge ass jugs full of buttermilk ranch dressing. Thirteen mashed potato mixes. Some fruits- melon, strawberry, white and red and purple grapes, some blue berries... And that was about it she supposed though she couldn't exactly see everything.

Looking at it all, she frowned as she wondered who the hell had put it in front of her home like this before she slowly got up and with a pained sigh, carried everything inside and put it away while thinking, _This isn't something that grandpa would_ _do._ He would have called first to tell her that something was outside of her door. Her grandmother simply would have barged into her home and stuffed everything wherever she felt it should be and then leave.

So that only left... You know now that she really looked at the stuff there was only one person who could have done this. _Optimus_. And while it was sweet of him to have done this for her- it was wholly unnecessary. Or at least she thought so as she picked up a frozen packet of chicken and imagined smashing the teen over the head with it.

Her imaginings were however short lived since she didn't want to seem ungrateful for the kindness that he had showed so far. So she supposed that when she saw him at school today she would simply have to put her pride aside and thank him for getting her more stuff then she actually could eat in a month.

As it was she could probably thank him for cutting down on her grocery bill for a while.

Finally finishing putting everything up, she noted the time and knew that if she didn't leave now- she'd be late. Moving through her home, she made her way to the front door and quickly slipped out.

The bed was ten minutes from ringing by the time she got there, but at least she managed to get there. Slipping into the building she carefully navigated her way through the halls to her locker and took a moment to open it so that she could get her books out when she heard a commotion not too far away and turned her head to see what was going on and saw Optimus and one of his friends about to throw down with a few jocks.

"Shit." She muttered as she quickly slammed her locker door closed and stuffed her books in the backpack that she kept in the locker along with everything else, and then started towards the group.

 _Boys could be such idiots sometimes,_ She thought as she managed to push through the crowd just in time to see Optimus grab one kid by the front of his shirt and snarl in his face before he head butted him. There was a sickening crack, a gush of blood as the boy cried out and staggered back as Optimus's friend was jumped from behind and had his arms pulled back by the other kid so that one of the others could hit him.

However the follow through never happened since she had slung her backpack and slammed it into the 'puncher' boy's stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs as she turned to see Optimus's friend finally free himself from the other kid and throw him into the kid the Optimus had been beating the hell out of.

The two took note of her standing there watching everything for a moment, which allowed another kid to grab her, causing her to let out a startled scream as she was picked up and then slammed into the nearest hard surface as she was trapped there, dizzy, and trying to catch her breath while her wrist was seized by the person who had slammed her into the stupid...what was it? The floor, the wall? She wasn't able to focus right to be able to tell as she felt an oddly painful pressure being applied to her wrist before she heard/felt something in it snap.

It almost seemed as if the sound echoed, because the hall suddenly felt as if it were so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Or maybe that had more to do with the blood rushing to her ears, drowning out everything else momentarily. She didn't see or hear Optimus's reaction to her being injured for trying to help him and his friend, but she knew enough about the teen to know that once he saw her injury then the person responsible would likely wind up in traction.

She felt her wrist being abruptly released, followed by the weight pressing her against the surface disappearing before gentle hands carefully turned her around to see her face.

Glazed pale green eyes met worried eerie blue as she felt his fingertips carefully grasp her injured arm below her wrist to keep from hurting her even more as he accessed her condition as she finally felt the violent churning in her stomach and bile burning the back of her throat mere second before she leaned away from him and vomited until there was nothing more in her stomach to puke up.

It was at this point that she became vaguely aware of several things, one, her wrist was broken. Two, Optimus was picking her up. And three was that he had had to step over the guy who had hurt her because he was laying unconscious in a pool of his own blood on the floor.


	13. Chapter 13

Optimus refused to leave Sara's side even after an ambulance had been called by the school nurse who had double checked to make sure that her wrist was actually broken or not. On top of that, he had managed to piss off the principal and get himself suspended, along with Sideswipe and Sara.

Not that he cared right then. No he had bigger concerns. Like his femme laying on one of the bed's slipping in and out of consciousness because she was in pain- next to the bed of the asshole that had broken her fucking wrist. To be perfectly honest, Optimus was still pissed off enough to be of the mind to kill the sorry bastard.

He was sure that he could get away with making it simply look like his death was a result of his beating. All he had to do was put his hand over the idiots mouth and nose and wait.

It wouldn't take long.

However he stayed his hand _only_ because he didn't want his femme to find out about the human male's death later on and begin to blame herself for his sudden loss of life. He knew her well enough to know that she would feel guilt over his death, should Optimus actually decide to follow through and kill him.

And he didn't want that.

Sara let out a whimper, drawing his undivided attention away from the male and back to her as he reached out and very gently brushed her dark hair back away from the bruises forming on her cheek and forehead from where she had been slammed into the wall far too hard.

 _I can't believe that I stooped so low as to fight with humans._ He thought as he studied the dark splotches blooming underneath her skin. However the fight never would have started in the first place if one of the human's hadn't taken making fun of him and his relationship with his friends too far.

It was one thing to question his sexuality. It was quite another to drag his femme into the conversation and make character slurs about how much of a slut and a whore she must be. Much less her favorite positions to be fucked in.

So yeah, he'd lost his temper a little bit.

But things never would have escalated even more as they had if not for the fact that he'd seen/heard Sara being hurt. Once that had happened, Optimus and Sideswipe had torn through the group of human males as if they were tissue paper.

And though the other males that had started the fight with him and his friend were more or less fine, he couldn't care less about the boy that had injured Sara. In fact he kept imagining Megatron coming back form the dead and taking the boy as a pleasure slave or something.

He bet if that happened, the boy wouldn't dare ever start a fight like this one again. Especially since he'd be too busy taking Megatron's spike and curling up somewhere crying.

Sara stirred for a moment and reached out with her uninjured hand and carefully grasped his own in her hand, jolting him out of his disgustingly morbid thoughts long enough to ask her how she was feeling. She didn't speak, she merely gave him a pained looking smile and squeezed his hand slightly while the fingers of his free hand absently played with her soft hair until she drifted back off.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that. But when the nurse came in to tell him that the ambulance was finally there, he was more than a little bit nervous about leaving her side.

Carefully slipping his hand from hers, he took a moment to take her hand in his and lean down just a bit to press his lips against her knuckles before moving to stand back away from her as the paramedics came into the room and began working on her. But when they placed her on the gurney and began to leave, he couldn't simply sit or stand in this case- still any longer.

He trailed behind them as quietly as a ghost. And once he heard them say what hospital she was being taken to, he started running.

Call him crazy but after what the human boy had done to her wrist, he wasn't all that pro- human right that moment. And he had no desire to leave her alone with them for more time than was absolutely necessary. He must have gotten more than two blocks away from the school when Bee pulled up beside him in his car and opened the passenger side door and told him to get in.

Slipping into the vehicle, Bee asked him where they were going and what Sara's condition was as Optimus filled him in as he pulled back onto the street and started driving in the direction of the hospital that Optimus had named.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Bee asked after a little bit of time had passed, referring to the fight and what had led to Sara being injured.

Optimus clenched his teeth for a moment before saying quietly, "No."

"You know that if you need to-"

"I'm well aware of our behavior protocols Bee. Just drive please." Optimus said curtly, cutting the younger mech off at the knee.

"Well is there anything that you _do_ want to say?" Bee asked, deciding not to drop the subject just yet until he got something from his leader. Optimus inhaled as he closed his eyes for a moment and then said very calmly, belying the turmoil that he felt churning deep within him.

"I wanted to kill him. I still do." And until now he had merely written the feeling off as some sort of instinct. After all protecting one of his own with lethal force was an instinct. Deeply imbedded within each of their sparks and minds, and the instinct was extremely volatile when it was touched upon or triggered.

And though Sara was one of them, was under his protection, Optimus couldn't help but question _why_ he had wanted to kill the human boy when he knew better.


	14. Chapter 14

Of course he didn't dwell on the why of things for terribly long since he didn't think that he would have any time to truly sit down and analyze his own troubling thoughts. Not while his mind was otherwise occupied by thoughts of Sara and taking care of her.

Which was part of the reason why once he and Bee reached the hospital, he didn't think twice about slipping from the vehicle while it was still in motion. He was so in tune with the other machine and it's workings that it really didn't matter anyways.

He was able to avoid getting himself injured and didn't so much as miss a step as he ran for the side entrance of the ER. Leaving Bee in the vehicle in the parking lot, staring at his back as he disappeared into the building.

Walking up to the nurses station, he asked if Sara was in the back getting her wrist treated and was told to sit down and someone would let him back in a few minutes. Reluctantly he removed himself from the area and went to grab a seat as Bee entered and walked over to him.

"What did they say?"

"She's in the back getting some X-rays and stuff done. I was told that they would let me back in a few."

"Do you really think that they will let you back? Isn't only family allowed back there?"

Optimus cracked his knuckles. He wasn't trying to be a bastard or an ass or a jerk or even intimidating in that moment. He merely needed to pop them because his hands hurt some from when he had beat the little punk that had hurt his femme. Aside from that, he remained quiet and waited to see what would happen.

Sure enough twenty minutes later, one of the nurses from the back walked through the door leading to the waiting room and called his name. Slowly looking back over his shoulder to make sure that Bee would wait right there until he came back, the smaller mech gave him a little salute and then leaned back in his seat and folded his hands over his stomach as Optimus disappeared into the back.

"Okay, so your Miss Hart's friend?"

"Yes."

"Okay, follow me and I'll take you to her." The nurse said with a kind smile as she started walking. Optimus trailed after her like a ghost until they reached the area where Sara was, because upon reaching their destination- Optimus shamelessly ditched the human female and entered the room to see his femme laying on a bed while a doctor slowly placed a cast on her wrist.

"Come on in son. We don't stand on ceremony much back here so there's no point in hesitating." The man said without looking up from his task. Optimus glared at him for a moment before shifting his attention back to his femme as he slowly approached her other side.

Sara didn't look like she was conscious. Something that made the mech frown before he looked at the human male and asked, "What's wrong with her?" She should be awake shouldn't she?

The doctor made a humming sound before he responded, "She's fine. Merely sleeping. We had to give her something for pain so that we could reset the bones in her wrist without her trying to come up off of the bed and try to rip someone's head off. And pain meds usually make people sleepy."

Optimus absorbed everything that the man said before he then asked, "She didn't want her grandparents called down here, do you have any idea why?"

"I think it's because they are in their late seventies or early eighties. She tends to take care of cooking for them and maybe a few other things several times a week."

"I see. And does she have a job that she needs to worry about?"

"I'm not exactly sure if one can call it a job...but she does a little bit of work here and there in jewelry and sales."

"No heavy lifting?"

"No."

"Any siblings?"

"No."

"Just you?"

 _What a strange thing to ask._ Optimus thought before saying, "Yes. Just me." And every other Autobot in the city at present. He mentally added as the doc finished up his work and then set his tools aside.

"Alright, she's not going to be able to use her wrist for the next few weeks or until the cast comes off. Since she has work and takes care of her grandparents it would be best if she had a little bit of help. The same goes for school stuff. She won't be able to carry any heavy books and such. She needs to be careful of her injury. No accidentally banging her arm on anything, and stuff like that. I don't care how sturdy the cast looks- it could cause more damage than she currently has. I'm going to fill a prescription pain med for her for when she's hurting. She needs to take the medicine on a full stomach with water. Any questions?"

He had a ton of questions. But was apparently to slow to articulate them all before the man got up and started walking before he finally said, "I'm going to go get her medicine filled for you. She'll have three refills just in case. Oh! before I forget, that cast that she has on- she can get it a little bit wet when she bathes- but only a little bit. Once I bring her medicine back, I'll start on the paper work to release her so that you can take her home."

Once he was gone, Optimus sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands and looked at Sara as he wondered, _Now what_ _do I do?_ He wanted to take care of Sara but wasn't sure _how_ to do that shy of either moving in with her for a while or moving her in with him for a little bit.

And due to the fact that his home consisted of nothing but mechs who didn't know the first slagging thing about personal space- and staying out of it- then the only thing that he could really think of was staying with her and her place temporarily.

He'd even make himself useful and cook for her and her grandparent, wash the dishes and help her out in the store. He'd probably do laundry for her too, but he doubted that she would like it much if he wound up handling her... _unmentionables._ So he'd have to steer himself away from that particular chore. Though he had no problem with helping to fold her clothing as long as she folded the unmentionables and hid them from his curious eyes.

Yeah that could work.


	15. Chapter 15

**I am so sorry about this chap...**

(********************************************************************************************************************************************)

It took about an hour in a half for the hospital to finally release Sara into his care, after which he carefully pocketed her pain meds and scooped his femme up into his arms- because she was still sleeping- and walked out of the ER with her and then collected Bee and then left.

The ride back to her place was quiet with the exception of Bee asking him what he was planning to do. To which Optimus replied quietly that he was going to stay with her for a week or so to help her out and he would need Bee to go to their home and pack him a duffle bag of clean clothing and bring it back to him.

If Bee was surprised at all with this turn of event, he said nothing about it. Merely nodded his head and promised that he would do as he was told once he had dropped Optimus and Sara off and helped make the femme comfortable. If Optimus had been of the mind to argue, he would have argued with Bee that making her comfortable was his job and his alone. However he knew that Bee's spark was in the right place, so he simply let the mech's words slide.

Besides, Bee had spent far more time with humans, around humans so it wasn't all that hard to imagine him _knowing_ what _to_ do and what _not_ to do. In fact ever since he and the other Autobots had first come to earth, Bee had been the one to set them straight on every mistake and faux pas that they made the mistake of making.

So it wouldn't exactly surprise him if Bee knew more about making a femme comfortable after being injured.

 _There is no shame in asking for help_. Optimus thought to himself as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment. Besides it wasn't like the other mech was dumb enough to start talking about his lack of knowledge behind his back or something. Doing so would only ensure a good beat down from his leader.

And that was the last thing that either of them wanted.

The moment that the car pulled up to the sidewalk outside of Sara's home, Optimus opened his eyes and frowned at the shiny red and black vehicle parked just a few feet from Bee's car.

 _Who the hell-_ He wondered as he slowly opened the door and climbed out of the car and then quickly collected Sara and used his foot to shut the car door. Walking around the car, he eyed the new vehicle with a measure of suspicion as he and Bee walked over to the door and he paused to give Bee Sara's house key, which he had gotten a hold of during her stay in the hospital.

However when Bee went to unlock the door- he found that it was already unlocked and then quickly looked back at Optimus with a worried expression on his face and watched as Optimus's eyes lit up with what the Autobots had quickly learned to refer to as a 'Prime's rage'.

Carefully shifting Sara in his grasp he looked at Bee and told him to take point and lead. If there were in fact any intruder's in his femme's home, he'd certainly make them wish that they had never shown their miserable faces to him nor his femme.

Nodding in understanding, Bee opened the door and waited until Optimus had stepped through the door before he did as he was told and started walking. Meanwhile Optimus was scanning the shop and everything else that he could think of just to make sure that nothing had been stolen.

Slowly making their way from the shop down the hallway towards the living room, Bee stopped walking for a second when he heard voices. A male and female.

Optimus must have heard them too, because he looked like he was torn between going and kicking some ass and handing Sara over to Bee while he took out the trash. However instead, he simply walked by Bee and stepped into the living room so that he could more adequately calculate the current threat level the two human's posed to Sara when he heard, "I wonder where our baby girl is? You don't think that she passed out in the street or something do you?"

"Dunno, those hospital drugs can make a person pretty loopy. I can go drive around and see-"

"No! We need to be here to make sure that she's okay when she get's here."

"You mean if she hasn't been kidnapped or hit by a car or gang raped in some weird abandoned building by a bunch of... _black guys_." The male voice said with a slight hint of disgust.

"Stop! Stop saying things like that! If we wind up with a black great grand baby- I'm going to blame you for jinxing our girl!"

"What? You can't do that."

"Shut up and call some of your pimp friends and see if they've seen her."

"Honey- if I call them and basically ask if any of them had seen her, it would be like advertising that she's up for grabs and I know a few of those fuckers would love to make her their bitch."

"Then why be friends with them?"

"Because I would rather be friends with them and know their every move than allow them to freely move about my granddaughter without the proper kind of supervision. Besides, I only have to do this till she get's herself a man to take care of her."

"In that case the both of us will be dead and gone long before that happens."

"You might. But I plan to laugh in the face of death and live forever."

"That's nice dear. Good luck living on your own." The words, _Especially since we both know that you'll slowly die of_ _starvation wearing dirty clothing_ , practically hung unsaid in the air.

Optimus carefully and silently moved to the couch and placed Sara down on it, watching as she automatically snuggled herself into the plush cushions as he continued to listen to the two strange humans conversing. To be perfectly honest, he had never thought much about what would happen if he met her grandparents.

He knew that he wanted to make a good impression on them so that they would leave Sara in his care. But aside from that he hadn't actually planned on getting to know them much. Much less bond with them. And it wasn't that he had any personal bad feelings about them.

From their conversation alone he had been able to tell that they were both very loving, odd, and protective- _odd_ \- people. Had he mentioned that they were odd? Because that alone stood out in his mind right this moment and bore the most mentioning.

Shifting slight aside so that Bee could move to stand next to the couch, he sent him a silent message to _guard_ his femme just in case they had read the situation wrong and then moved towards the kitchen where the voices were coming from.

Walking over to the wall that separated the living room and kitchen, he peeked around it to find the pair of humans drinking two mugs of steaming hot coffee. The female was the easiest to see since her body wasn't hidden by layers of bulky clothing like the huge frigging purple fur coat that the male was wearing.

The female was a platinum blond with shoulder length hair, hazle eyes, and she was wearing a weird looking and somewhat revealing sequined red dress that clung to her bust and emphasized the tiny size of her stomach as well as her wide hips. The skirt of her dress barely reached the middle of her thighs and when she shifted-

Optimus quickly looked away, his face turning beet red from the shock of what he had just seen while his mind began chanting, Weren't grandmother's supposed to be over weight? Wear knitted sweaters with cats and glowers and hearts? And sweat pants that covered every inch of their legs and everything above their legs (like their crotch)? Why oh why, oh why did Sara's grandmother dress and look like an old time show girl or hooker?!

No one wanted to see her body! No one needed to but her mate!

And yet- though he would venomously deny it- he had seen her...naughty bits... Whimpering as he tried to delete the image of the female's bits from his mind, he wasn't aware of the fact that he had accidentally alerted the two to his presence if the, "Well, what have we got here?" Was any indication at all as he slowly turned his head to look at the five foot ten inch elderly man before banging his head on the wall and thinking.

 _This had to be the most awkward meeting of parental/guardian units- ever._


	16. Chapter 16

"So...you going to tell us what your doing in my grandbaby's home, son?" The male asked as he stepped a little bit further into the living room and more or less boxed Optimus in as his mate moved to intervene, she noted the other boy sitting on the floor by the couch where her grandchild lay sleeping and practically busted _everyone's_ ear drums when she shrieked and then ran over to check on Sara.

Causing the male to look away from Optimus just long enough to allow the mech to inch away from the male as far as he could.

"Samuel look! These two nice young men brought our baby girl home!"

The man, Samuel grunted in response to his wife's words and then turned to retry questioning the tall dark haired teen only to find him missing for the moment. Damn, how had he managed to escape without making any sound? He wondered as he looked around for the young man and finally found him all the hell across the living room over by the window.

He was just standing there, staring at them wide eyed and probably wondering if escaping out the window would allow him to get away from here and them. It wouldn't, but if the kid wasn't aware of just how much he already wanted to mow him down in his new car for being anywhere near his granddaughter, then let him try and run. Samuel thought as he cracked his knuckles.

"How is she, hon?" Sam asked curiously.

"Yup she has a broken wrist alright. Just like the school nurse said- and she's out like a light."

"The hospital probably gave her something to help with the pain."

"Oh I know. Now on to other things," The woman said as she straightened her spine and looked at both Bee and Optimus and smiled pleasantly. "My name is Cassie, and this is my husband Samuel. We're Sara's grandparents. Who are you two nice young fellas?"

Bee pointed to Optimus and sang like a damn canary, "Bee and Optimus." To say that the leader of the Autobots was displeased by the smaller mech for caving so easily to the humans would be an understatement. In fact he made a mental note to do something truly terrible to the smaller mech as soon as possible. Preferably when there were no witnesses to try and stop him.

"And what are you doing here?" Sam asked in a no nonsense tone.

"We brought Sara home from the hospital." Optimus said a little bit hesitantly. And for good reason, the male was giving off a ton of bad vibes and he didn't want to be on his bad side since that would mean he would have to give Sara up. And he wasn't doing that shit for anyone. Family or not.

"Oh, that's so sweet boys, thank you." Cassie said kindly. As it was right now Optimus was quickly coming to like the woman more than her husband.

"Yeah, that's sweet boys. You can leave now." Sam said, dismissing them when Optimus finally had enough of the male's attitude and snapped.

"I'm _not_ leaving."

"Yes you are."

"No. I'm not. I plan to stay and take care of Sara." Optimus said. His words sounding more insane than bold to the pair of humans. After all they didn't know if this boy was their granddaughter's boyfriend, her fuck buddy or whatever. Samuel wanted to kill him. And... _dammit_ Cassie wanted to welcome the boy to the family.

No matter, he'd wait until she left the room and then he'd kill the horny little monkey.

"Cassie, sweetheart- Why don't you go and grab a pillow and a blanket so that Sara can sleep a bit more comfortably," Sam suggested as he plastered on a smile as fake as his purple fur coat and gave her a little wave as she pranced out of the room before turning to the two teens and growling. "You aren't staying here. So I suggest that you get that fool idea out of your head brat. I will not allow any stinking boys to stay this close to my granddaughter when she isn't awake and aware enough to _kick_ your ass if need be."

"I will stay. I do not care if you refuse my help or not. I'm doing this for her, _not you_." Optimus growled back as the smaller male got up in his face. All while thinking, _One push- One push is all it will take to break his hip. I'm certain that I can make it look accidental. Only Bee will ever know and he isn't going to tell unless he wants his hip broken too._

Cassie finally returned to the room carrying a nice big pillow and the comforter from Sara's bed and upon her entrance into the room, Samuel backed away from Optimus and smiled at her. "Did you find what you were looking for hon?"

"Hn? Oh yes. I also found something for Sara's friend Optimus since I'm sure that he accidentally got an eyeful earlier."

"An eyeful?" Samuel muttered in confusion before it dawned on him and he suddenly shouted. "You saw my wife's puss?!" At which point Optimus none too subtly reached out and placed his hand over the man's mouth to muffle whatever he was saying while Bee slowly turned his head to look at his leader, a beet red blush coloring his cheeks. The poor smaller mech looked like he was about to blow a damn fuse.

Samuel looked as if he were about to have a stroke.

Cassie...was ignoring the situation as a whole to fuss over her granddaughter.

Had Optimus mentioned that he liked her? He did. He really, really liked her. Mainly because despite her _distasteful_ choice of clothing Cassie seemed to genuinely love her grandchild and dote upon her very much.

Samuel might also be a very loving and doting grandfather- But it was difficult to see him as anything more than a pest at the moment. And Optimus was _dying_ to take the human over his knee and spank him for acting as he currently was. If nothing else it would mortify the male, perhaps into behaving.

Or so Optimus hoped.

The male struggled for several moments to remove his hand from his mouth when Cassie walked over to Optimus and demanded his free hand. Curious to see what she would do, he held his hand out and nearly felt his system shut down completely when she placed a white satin and lacy mint green little number in his hand and then gave him a playful wink before saying, "Don't tell Sara, okay?"

After which all hell broke loose as Samuel turned on him with a snarl and tackled him to the floor and tried to wrap his hands around his throat while Optimus just lay there on the floor, on his back with Sara's panties still in hand.


	17. Chapter 17

The moment that Sara woke up because of the yelling and shouting going on around her, was the beginning of the end. Even more so when she turned over and her sleep addled mind managed to focus on her grandfather, sitting on top of Optimus attempting to kill him while Optimus just lay there, sprawled out on her floor, either shocked, stunned or frozen- she wasn't really sure which.

 _"Sam! Samuel stop it! Sara will be upset with you if you hurt her friend!"_ Cassie shrieked as she attempted to pull her enraged husband off of the dark haired teen that she hoped her granddaughter would one day have enough sense to allow to father her children.

She didn't want the stunningly handsome almost model-like teen to be injured or killed! If he was injured or killed she might never get her beautiful and perfect great grandbabies!

"Samuel! So help me god if you don't get off of that poor boy right now- I will never let you sleep in the bed with me again!" Cassie shrieked as she stomped her foot.

Samuel, paused choking the teen so that he could look at his wife. Oh but she was upset with him. Really upset if she was dangerously close to crying. Which it looked like she was. "Now Cassie you know I'm not doing this to be mean-" He started to say when his wife grabbed him by the front of his shirt and partially hauled him off of Optimus and growled at him like a rabid animal.

"I don't care if your doing this for _any_ good reason- you hurt this boy and you are going to not only be on my shit list Sammy, but Sara's too."

Samuel blinked at his wife and was about to say something when Sara's voice cut through the room like a knife. "Too late. He's already on my shit list. Grandpa would you like to explain to me what the hell your doing to my friend?"

"I-I was just trying to...help him up-" Samuel said lamely as the green eyes of his angry granddaughter peered over the arm of the couch at him. She glared in response and Samuel made an irritated sound and then reluctantly climbed off of the boy, allowing his blond friend to help him sit up as Sara pushed herself up on the couch until she was sitting upright.

She took a moment to rest her chin on her hand before then saying, "Just what in gods name gives you the right to come into my home and treat my friends and schoolmates like shit, grandpa?"

"You're my granddaughter-"

"So?"

"What do you mean so? Do you even know what he is?" Samuel was damn near frothing at the mouth by now as he pointed at Optimus who merely blinked at his finger. "He's a boy! Do you know what boys have? Dicks! Dicks that they like sticking into pretty young girls like you! Boys are no good Sara-doll. Most boys like this one here would never look twice at a girl unless he believed her to be an easy fuck!"

Sara, sighed and tried massaging her temples only to be partially thwarted by the painful throbbing in one of her wrists before she muttered. "That still doesn't give you any right to come into my home and do as you please grandpa. Optimus and his friends are...nice. I like being close to them."

"I didn't raise you to be a chump as well as a whore." Samuel said before quickly realizing his mistake and quickly slapping his hands over his mouth as Sara slowly got to her feet and kicked the coffee table out of the way and stomped over to where he stood and got up in his face and snarled.

"You didn't raise me. Grandma did. She raised me to be a modern woman, and equal to men in all things. _She_ is welcome here until further notice, _now get the fuck out of my home_. You are banned until you either apologize to Optimus and mean it, or until I say that you can come back."

Samuel's jaw dropped open in shock and horror as Sara turned her back on him and went over to the no good boy that he'd been trying to get rid of and began checking on him. Dropping down to a crouch in front of him, he watched as the boy put his hands on his precious granddaughter's face and asked if she was alright.

His fingers stroking the soft skin of Sara's face, his eerie blue eyes watching her with a measure of concern that turned Samuel's stomach.

Such an intimate moment was meant for those who were lovers. Not his granddaughter and some _filthy_ disease cocked boy. Growling he was about to lunge at the dark haired teen when his wife caught him by the ear and began dragging him out of their grandchild's home practically kicking and screaming as she quickly called out over his voice, "Bye hon! You two kids be good and I'll come by in a day or so to help out with the store! Don't worry about your grandpa! He'll call to check up on you."

After which she dragged her husband out of the building and into their car and locked him in as she took a moment to wrestle him for the keys before she finally managed to get them away from him and put the keys in the ignition and start the car so that she could drive them home.


	18. Chapter 18

Squatting down in front of Sara with a glass of water in one hand and two tablets in the other Optimus watched his femme as she massaged her temple as if she were beginning to get a headache. And perhaps she was. He knew that if he had had parental units and fought with one of the more overbearing one's he would have gotten a headache too.

"Here. Take these. They will help with your wrist." He said gently as he handed the tablets over to her and watched her pop them in her mouth and then take the glass from him and down the whole thing before muttering a soft thanks and handing it back to him.

He looked at the empty glass and wondered if he should go refill it when he heard Bee ask her if she was alright. Turning his eerie blue eyes back to his femme, he noted that she didn't exactly look happy right then. Could she be upset because of her fight with her grandfather? He wondered as Sara replied to Bee's inquiry.

"I'm fine. Just...pissed that my grandfather is an idiot."

"You won't stay mad at him forever will you?" Bee sounded somewhat distressed at the mere thought, causing Optimus to look at him funny for a second as Sara said.

"No. Not forever, maybe a week. But it will feel like more for the time being."

"Why is that?"

"Because he's very attached to me. Did you know that once upon a time I had two siblings? And then my parents became junkies and the older two died from abuse and neglect. And despite not really getting along with my weirdly overprotective and possessive grandfather right now- I'm very attached to him as well. But he needs to know that he _can't_ control my life or who is in it and he can't go around _attacking_ my friends."

"So- you won't be mad at him forever?" Bee asked again.

Sara gave him a slow smile and then said, "No Bee. It's pointless to stay mad at him for extended periods of time when he's only trying to protect me from possible harm."

Bee nodded his head and then tapped Optimus on the shoulder and told him that he was going to go home and pack him some things. And then quietly left the two alone.

Once Bee was gone, Optimus noted how tired Sara looked and wondered if the medicine had finally kicked in as he suggested that she lay back down. She nodded her head at him and did as he bid, however before dozing back off again she apologized to him again for her grandfather's actions.

Thirty minutes later, Bee returned with his duffle bag full of clothes and other things and then left again, and let Optimus make himself as comfortable as possible after he carefully moved Sara to her room so that she could sleep better without any chance of being disturbed by him or any movements that he made.

After that he settled in for the night and continued watching some of Sara's DVD collection.

When the next day rolled around, Optimus woke up to find himself still sitting upright on Sara's couch, still wearing his jacket and clothing from yesterday with his feet tucked up under his rear and his hands carefully folded to rest on his stomach.

He didn't recall dozing off. Hell he didn't even recall becoming sleepy.

But he had been considerably stressed yesterday so it was probably normal for his system to simply shut down for a nice long doze. Stretching his arms up over his head, he attempted to bite back a yawn and failed before then letting his arms drop back to his sides and carefully shifted just in case his legs had gone to sleep on him, and then once he determined that he'd be fine getting up- stood and walked over to his duffle bag and picked it up.

Sara hadn't awoke again that he was aware of after dozing off for that second time. Allowing her to sleep through the night. He'd have to check on her in a few minutes, but for the time being he wanted to begin his day.

Walking up the stairs to the small-ish room across from Sara's bedroom, he pushed open the door and peeked inside and noted that he had been right to assume that this was her bathroom and then took a moment to set his bag down and go through it to pull out some fresh clothing, his razor, his deodorant, and his toothbrush and toothpaste and set them all out on the bathroom counter top before then leaving the room briefly to look in on Sara.

She was still sound asleep. Her blanket and pillows looked as if they had gone to war with her and lost, the various items were either strewn about her bed or her floor.

Snorting in amusement, he moved away from her bedroom and back to the bathroom, he'd have to be quick if he didn't want a specific doped up and drowsy femme to accidentally meander in and see him butt naked while he was showering.


	19. Chapter 19

Five days later-

Optimus sat on Sara's couch dripping wet in nothing but the fluffy towel around his waist, looking more than a little bit disgruntled. The past three days or so had been hard on him for obvious reasons. His first two days of staying with hi femme had gone fairly easy. He had settled into a small routine of doing light chores, cooking, dishes- that sort of thing.

However the third morning had started out rather unexpectedly.

He had been in the shower, relaxing underneath the warm spry when Sara had somehow miraculously bypassed the lock on the bathroom door, and shuffled in- causing him to freeze up while cleaning his...what did human's call it? His mini me? And caught Sara looking at him before she muttered something about seeing better as she shuffled out.

Causing him to nearly visibly bristle at the comment.

To his knowledge, human females found his form pleasing to the eye. He was tall, muscular, athletic and physically fit. He had pleasing colored eyes that were perhaps the only thing left over from his former mech form that stayed true to who he was. His dark hair was short in the back, but long-ish in the front. The fine hairs were baby soft to the touch without the need of any chemical enhancement.

His skin was a nice soft tan, sun kissed in appearance. His teeth straight, his jaw square in shape, his lips had a sensual look to them.

And below his waist...

Since he and the other Autobots had thought that they would be in their human forms for quite some time- they had each been meticulous in the details that they applied to their forms.

Ratchet had also spoken to each of them before hand about how their bodies were to function as well as look. Optimus himself had been eyeball deep in nothing but research on the human form and it's functions that it had occurred to him that the possibility of interfacing with a human female or two might occur.

For this reason he had chosen a very specific length and width for his...spike.

Eleven in a half inches when it was...engorged with synthetic blood and the proteins that his body produced that held trace amount's of enough synthesized human DNA that Ratchet had told him was entirely possible to use in impregnating human females if one so chose.

 _If they so chose_ , of course was the operative words.

Ratchet had explained that since it may take some time for their synthetic bodies to adapt to being human, it may also take some time for them to start feeling the pull of their 'hormones' and desire to interface.

So once he thought about all of that stuff, coupled with what his femme had said- he had begun to feel both angry at whoever she had seen with 'better' and insecure in his appearance. However he was a Prime and he tended not to dwell too much on things that upset him.

Unless he was dwelling on the human's betrayal of him and his men and the mass genocide of his species at the hands of Megatron.

However- he had started to dwell on his femme's words about his person and wondering if he should maybe confront her about her words. And he was really going to, but then...he sort of chickened out before he could even open his mouth. Mainly because he worried about having to hide in a closet again.

So he left the topic alone.

And then the morning after that while he had been showering, it had been business as usual. Until...the shower curtain had been pulled back and his femme stepped into the shower as naked as the day she was born. And his eerie blue eyes had gone so wide that if they hadn't been part of his form- they would have popped right out of his sockets as the very image of Sara's nude body burned itself into his memory and his systems began to suffer uncomfortable heat spikes.

She had looked like she was still asleep- which possibly attributed to the situation- her long hair was somewhat tousled and she had this beautiful sleepy-sexy look to her that caused him to shift uncomfortably as he attempted to see to it that his spike stayed hidden since it was filling with synthetic blood and proteins.

Indicating to him a longing that he had never thought that he would feel again after the death of his spark mate. In fact he was downright shocked by what he felt. But the longer he looked at his femme's body the more longing he felt.

I mean it wasn't like Sara had anything to be ashamed of. Her body was as beautiful as her soul. It was really the only way that Optimus could think to describe the female.

And then things had gotten horribly, horribly embarrassing for the two.

She had suddenly woken up to the degree where she had realized that they were both in the shower and damn near shattered his hearing mics with her sudden scream. So he had done the only thing that he could do- he had reacted as if the water was suddenly under heavy laser fire and he had dove out of the shower, grabbed a towel and took off running for the nearest closet.

Where he had sat for two in a half hours, merely trying to avoid Sara and her temper since he had thought she wouldn't be so easy to forgive him this time.

This morning had been no different. She had wandered in and joined him in the shower, and though she hadn't screamed this time- he could tell that she was upset by the way she was banging things together in the kitchen while he sat on the couch, dripping wet- _devoid of his closet safe haven_ \- and waited for his femme to come to him and chew him out for something that he had no control over.

He was under the impression that femme's were horrible, horrible creatures now...

No, that wasn't right. Horrible, horrible, _insensitive_ creatures! Yes that was far more adequate a description.


	20. Chapter 20

Breakfast was a quiet and somewhat...awkward affair for Optimus and Sara seeing as he had yet to decide to dress because he wished to stay out of her way for a little while longer, and also because his femme refused to speak to him about what had happened.

However half way through breakfast, Optimus finally decided to remove himself from her presence for a few minutes when her grandmother suddenly barged in and looked at him funny. Making his skin crawl.

Politely excusing himself as his face turned red, he all but ran up the stairs to retrierve the clothing that he had set aside for the day and get dressed. Leaving the elderly female to ask his femme, "What's with towel boy?"

Sara merely looked at her for a moment and then quickly gathered up her still slightly full breakfast plate and handed it to her grandmother. She suddenly didn't feel very hungry.

When Optimus returned from getting dressed, he found Cassie sitting where Sara had been and Sara MIA.

"Where is Sara?"

Cassie made a humming sound as she took a small bite of one of the buttermilk biscuits with gravy on top of it and then held up her index finger to indicate that she needed a moment to swallow. Optimus sat back down on the couch and picked up his previously discarded fork and picked at his cooling breakfast for a moment before Cassie finally said, "She's in the shop getting things ready for today, hon. Now, I have a question for you- What happened between you two? I've already asked her and she isn't talking to me. So you tell me."

Optimus considered her words for a moment before then quickly explaining to her the happenings of the past three days and once he finished, waited for her to react only to have the damned female laugh softly.

Huffing because he could sense that he had just wasted his time, he started to set his fork down when Cassie said. "Look at your breakfast," He did, though he was somewhat puzzled by her request. "Sara cooked it right?" She asked, and Optimus slowly nodded his head.

"Do you know why she fixed this specific meal for you?"

Optimus shook his head no, slowly, as a frown marred his features. Cassie giggled for a second before saying, "This is Sara's special; I'm-sorry-we're-fighting-and-it'll-all-be-over-soon meal. She started fixing it whenever she would fight with her grandfather over various things when she first learned to cook. It's her way of apologizing without saying the words." Optimus stared down at his food again, and slowly began to open his mouth before snapping it closed again as Cassie then said. "Besides, if she were still pissed about whatever it was that happened between you two- she would have fixed you shit on a shingle to let you know that you were still on her shit list."

He merely blinked at Cassie at that. His mind still trying to wrap around what she had just told him. Frankly he had never heard of this sort of human behavior before. So he wasn't sure if she was lying to him or not. Especially since he couldn't seem to find anything on the internet when he attempted to look up various means to apologize to a person.

The most listed means of apology between males and females, was candy and flowers. So naturally, he couldn't seem to make sense of what she had told him when he compared it to what he had managed to find on the net.

He might have asked something in order to help clear up his internal confusion, however Sara chose that same exact moment to peek back in to the living room and tell the two that the shop was open now.

Cassie didn't move, didn't even seem to have heard her granddaughter. She was still a tad bit busy eating what was left of Sara's breakfast and was off in her own little world for the moment.

Which left Optimus to quietly gather his plate and his glass of juice and move over to the kitchen where he placed both dishes on the counter top before then walking over to join Sara. She looked at him, her pale green eyes and expression oddly shuttered as he paused barely a hairs breath from her, and looked for a moment if he wanted to ask her if she was alright. Only to be stopped when she lifted one of her small hands and placed it over his synthetic heart and patted his chest there twice before walking away.

Watching her as she walked away from him, Optimus stood very still for a moment feeling as if he had just been hit in the chest by a ten ton mech's fist. He- He simply couldn't seem to breathe and he didn't understand _why_.


	21. Chapter 21

The day seemed to pass fairly quickly once he, Cassie and Sara were manning the shop. And though it was fairly uneventful (if the earlier events of the morning could be counted as anything eventful) there were a few things about the day that seemed to stick out in Optimus's mind.

One of course, had been Sara's gentle pat on the chest. His skin oddly enough, still tingled. Though not in a terrible or even bad way. Merely in a way that he didn't know how to classify.

And then there had been some of the customers that had come in- one of which had been an elderly couple that had been somewhat scatterbrained and for all intents and purposes appeared positively ancient even by his standards. Hell they were older than Cassie and Samuel! Though he was uncertain about how much older.

The two had walked into the shop dressed in a nice suite and a nice sky blue and pink floral dress and had looked around for a second or so before approaching the counter where Cassie and he stood and the male had kindly asked if they could get some jazz music playing.

Optimus had been a little put off by the request, politely spoken as it had been, he really didn't understand what was going on. So naturally he had balked and then looked down when he felt one of Sara's hands on his arm.

Before the elders had walked in, she had been sitting at her desk doing a little bit of repair work. And now, she was up on her feet and over at the counter- touching him...

He wasn't sure what the appropriate reaction was at this point.

He wanted her to sit back down and relax, but also knew that she probably had some inkling as to what the hell was going on. So when she smiled at the male and quickly pulled something out of one of her display cases and asked her grandmother to go and fetch one of her jazz CD's and her radio- he had again been very confused as to what was going on.

At least until she had crooked a finger at the male and he leaned in and Optimus was able to hear her ask, "How many years has it been?"

To which the male simply gave her a slow grin and said, "Seventy five. We're planning to renew our vows." Sara's smile was so brilliant that her eyes sparkled as she handed over the piece of jewelry that she had pulled from one of her display cases as her grandmother returned with the items that she had been sent after and quickly set them up over by the desk.

Optimus looked back and forth, still just a little bit puzzled. His mind asking, Seventy five years? What vows? As the male moved back to the center of the room where his female was standing patiently waiting for him. The music started playing as the male took his female by the hand and kissed it before bringing her in close to his body and then leading her around in a slow dance that matched the song playing perfectly.

They must have danced for close to ten minutes or more before they finally stopped and the male dropped down to one knee in front of the female and said, "Ann my love, I have loved you since we were children. I courted you and finally married you when we were both sixteen. We have lived through many years. Raised a family together. Laughed and cried together, and each year that I have you with me is a cherished gift. I don't know how much longer we may have on this earth, but I know that I love you more and more with every breath I take. Will you marry me again, and continue to live the rest of our days out together side by side?"

The female, Ann merely smiled at the male as he slid the piece of jewelry- which Optimus could now see was a lovely white gold and diamond ring with two conjoined hearts, on the female's ring finger.

Cassie and Sara both looked at each other and grinned as it finally dawned on Optimus just what he was witnessing. This was a type of human courtship ritual. A mating ritual.

Feeling his lips curve up in a small smile, now that he knew what he had been seeing he could see the loving bond between the two. However the moment felt somewhat ruined to him by the scent of death that was clinging to the female.

Looking away from the to because he knew that the female didn't have much longer to live, Optimus knew that once the female passed on the male would likely perish as well soon after.

Such was the way of mates.

Not long after the male was helped to his feet by Cassie (because apparently his knees weren't as good as they once had been) the two left.

The second thing that seemed to stand out in Optimus's mind was the second round of daily visitors. Which consisted of a few kids from their school who were skipping. And the second that the lot of them entered Sara's shop, Optimus already hated them.

And for good reason, a few of the boys were the kids that had slandered his femme's character in school and got their asses beaten by him for it. He also noticed one or two that had singled out Bee and Sideswipe a few times. And then there were the two girls with them.

He already knew their reputations, and he planned to keep a very, very close eye on Sara's things. Especially since the two had a nasty habit of taking things without paying for them.

The second that he was noticed by the lot of them, the males walked up to the counter and began their shit. "Well, well if it isn't the sorry asshole that fucked up my handsome face."

Optimus had never been a smack talker, he preferred actions over words unless he was attempting to be diplomatic, however he thought he would try- at least once. "You're face wasn't that handsome. In fact, if you ask me, the bruising and bone adjustment make you look prettier than you used to. But then it doesn't change the fact that your the sorry sack of shit that slammed a defenseless girl into the wall and then snapped her wrist."

The boy scoffed and let his gaze flicker towards Sara who wasn't even paying attention to the group because she had resumed her work at her desk. "You mean her? Little miss frigid? She's nothing special."

"Oh? That's funny, especially of one of the boys who has been running his mouth about how she must be some kind of slut and such. Tell me pencil dick, are you spreading those rumors because your compensating for something downstairs? Or do you simply run your mouth like an idiot because you can't get over the fact that she's the one girl in school who has absolutely no desire to spread her legs for you like those two bitches?" Optimus's eyes flickered towards the girls for a moment, just enough time to see one of them place something in her jacket pocket before he raised his voice. The sound startling everyone somewhat. _**"Put that back before I come over there and kick the both of your asses personally!"** _

Everyone looked at him for a moment before one of the girls scoffed at his words, and decided to call his bluff.

A worse move could not have been made. Especially since Optimus didn't make threats lightly. Slipping from behind the counter, he shoved passed the boys and walked straight up to the two females and sneered down at the bitches before grabbing them both and dragging them both over to the counter where he then none too gently emptied their pockets and then took their purses and dumped everything out in front of everyone.

Between the two they had just lifted several thousand dollars from Sara's shop in sterling silver and gold and precious gems. And he was going to see to it that they paid every fucking cent. Whether they wanted to or not.

Picking up a pair of credit cards that had come out of their purses, he shot the two a nasty smile and then walked back around the counter and before anyone could so much as protest his actions, he had rung everything up and slid the cards through the machine and then tossed everything in the girl's faces and told them to take their shit and get the fuck out.

If he ever saw any of them in Sara's shop again, he would see to it that they were all escorted out in handcuffs.

He supposed that they must have taken him seriously because they quickly grabbed their things, dumped it all back into their purses and then ran crying for the door. After which Optimus then shifted his angry glare to the males, who called them all several rather distasteful names and then scampered out after the females like the pussies that they were.

After that it took a while for Optimus to calm down.

He simply couldn't seem to push aside his anger at the kids. He wanted to leave the store, hunt them down and tear them all apart. However after dealing with a few more... _pleasant_ people, he finally managed to calm himself down.

Finally after about half a day of work, Sara announced that she was going to close the store a few hours early and then they were all going out for pizza and then got up out of her seat and began locking up the place while Cassie helped him count the money.

They had had at least thirty five sells today between the morning and afternoon so the amount of money that they had was more substantial than the last time he had helped Sara out in her shop. Instead of ten thousand she had raked in close to forty.

Which was more than impressive really. But it also aggravated him a tad bit when after all the counting and dividing was carefully done, Sara handed him four thousand, six hundred and eighty nine dollars. Causing him to scowl at her as she turned her back.

He'd be sure to leave the money in ne of her DVD cases or something before he went back home. That way she couldn't try to give it back to him. Once that was settled and everyone had grabbed their jackets and such, the three headed out.


	22. Chapter 22

Several more days passed before the next disaster struck.

Optimus had been a tad bit more... _handsy_ with Sara than he usually is, and hadn't known why until a day or so passed and one morning while in the bathroom to go about his normal routine- he had been able to smell the female pheromones so _strongly_ that he had become dizzy as his processors had worked triple time to analyze the meaning of the smell and almost caused him to pass out and brain himself on the corner of the bathroom counter.

But since he was fast enough to catch himself to keep from falling, he instead felt his knees get weak as he muttered a quiet oath as panic began to slowly set in to his pheromone entranced mind.

 _Slag, slag, slag!_ How could he have been so stupid as to have forgotten about the human female reproductive cycle? He wondered as he slowly straightened himself and moved out of the room as if in a daze, and headed across the hall to Sara's room where he reached out and quietly placed his palm against the door and slowly pushed it open to see his femme standing next to her bed, tugging at the long sleeved button down green shirt that she was planning to wear for today.

She didn't sense him at first.

Hell she didn't even see him as he stepped into the room and made it half way to the bed while she slowly buttoned her shirt. For all intents and purposes, her mind seemed to be a million miles away. Which was fine. Especially since it allowed for him to get as close to her as possible and finally _catch_ her.

The second that his hands made contact with her person, his femme nearly jumped out of her skin as she quickly tried to spin around only to find herself trapped by his grip before he lifted her up and flung her onto her bed where she landed on her side and tried to push herself upright, causing the hem of her long shirt to ride up her legs to her thighs.

And as much as he would have liked to simply stand there and enjoy the view, he couldn't let her escape him just yet. Climbing onto her bed slowly, he moved himself so that his body was draped over her own, and heard her let out a small gasp when his spike made contact with her bottom.

Half twisting her head to yell at him, Optimus quieted her by sealing his lips over her own. His mind was half gone, his senses were drunk off of her pheromones, his mind only understanding that his femme was primed for mating.

Sara's eyes were wide as she felt one of Optimus's hands move to grasp her wrists and hold them where they were while the other tilted her head just a little bit more- in a slightly more painful angle- as his tongue swept along the inside of her parted lips.

He groaned deep within his throat at the taste of his femme's lips. She tasted like perfection. Her soft lips giving under his own to allow him entrance to her moist cavern. His tongue licked along her own, tempting her, coaxing her to respond to his sudden advances towards her.

After a time, he began to wonder if perhaps he had shocked his femme so much by the abruptness of his advances, that she was simply to far gone to respond to him. However then- he felt her shyly touch his tongue with her own before she retreated slightly.

And inwardly, he purred as his spark pulsed with desire and longing.

Tearing his mouth away from the sweetness of her lips- he slowly released her wrists and moved back a little bit. Causing her to cast a dazed/confused look at him from over her shoulder before he took hold of her hips and flipped her onto her back before covering her small body with his own again.

Growling low in his throat he reached out and none too nicely ripped open her shirt so that he could touch her more. Skimming his hands and fingers along every inch of her soft satiny skin as he leaned down and kissed her with a little more finesse this time.

Carefully, gently, laying one agonizingly slow, drugging kiss after another on her already bruised lips as his large hands carefully cupped the soft mounds of her breasts through her bra before he shifted his attention to lay hungry little open mouthed kisses against the soft skin of her slender throat causing her breathing to hitch slightly before he roughly sank his teeth into her shoulder, eliciting a soft cry of both pain and pleasure.

He couldn't- no shouldn't continue this. However he felt as if he were helpless to resist her and her innocent allure. Yet he knew that if he didn't stop now he would take her as his spark bonded mate and he couldn't do so without her permission.

Feeling her fingers thread through his dark hair as her long slender legs wrapped around his waist, he nearly lost it completely when he felt her grind her silk covered core against him through his sleeping pants, a soft sound of pleasure escaping her lips.

He released the skin that he had been suckling on the side of her neck and was about to do something more, to take things further though he knew that he shouldn't when he suddenly felt something against his stomach and his world tilted and he was sent crashing to the floor next to her bed.

Allowing Sara to quickly remove herself from the bed and run from the room while he lay there, puzzled...slightly dazed, terribly aroused and trying to catch his breath and clear his mind and will away the aching in his lower body. It took him several seconds to realize what he had almost done. And several moments more to figure somethings out that he had been trying not to think on for a while now.

He cared for Sara. Above and beyond any claim that he and the others had made on her.

Somehow, between the moment that she had rescued Bee and he had started watching her- he had become very attached to the femme. His femme. It was funny how he had never realized just how true those sentiments were.

She was _his_ femme. He wanted her. Desired her as a male desired a female to be his mate. And he fully intended to be relentless and utterly ruthless in his pursual of her if need be. And by the time he was done...Sara would be his spark bonded mate in every sense of the word. He lay there, finally able to think with a semi clear mind- Optimus let his lips quirk up in a small smile as the thought, _Resistance is futile_ , passed through his mind.

He lay there several moments longer- just to give Sara a _somewhat_ decent head start before he quietly got to his feet and left the room to thank his future mate for helping him...clear his mind.


	23. Chapter 23

Optimus spent the entire day, more or less chasing Sara around and making an utter nuisance of himself until finally sometime around the time she decided to cook dinner for them- she simply couldn't take it anymore and she kicked him out of her home- telling him that he needed to obviously go and hang out with the 'boys' for a little bit and he could come back in an hour in a half, maybe two hours tops.

After that she had walked away from the front door, after locking him out, and left him standing outside of her home inwardly laughing at his predicament.

His femme obviously needed some time away from him for a little while. And that was fine. But only a fool would assume that a mere locked door would keep him from his intended prey. Not that his future mate was a fool. She wasn't. Not in the least.

But thinking that a mere door and lock would keep him from her if he really wanted to be near her was simply all kinds of silly. Besides, if he really wanted back in, he'd simply pick the lock or kick the door in and then walk back inside.

He didn't understand why his femme wanted to be away from him for the moment. In his mind, being away from one's mate was an agony worse than death. But then maybe it didn't work that way for humans?

Still, he'd give her the hour in a half to two hours that she had demanded. But when he returned, he suspected that the two of them would be sitting down somewhere to talk about her/his actions this day. And for once, Optimus had absolutely no intention of hiding himself in a closest if she got pissed at him.

Huffing slightly at what he expected would be a rather enlightening conversation- once he had it- he decided to do as his femme bid and go see the others. Perhaps he could speak with Ratchet about his decision. Turning in the direction of the home that he shared with the others, he walked the short distance to the Autobot's current living quarters and let himself inside.

The place was messier than he remembered, as he looked around the living room, he noted that there were food and drink stains on the furniture, a ceiling fan was laying amongst what looked like what used to be the coffee table. The TV screen was broken, and there was a humanisque figure that had apparently been _knocked_ through one of the living room walls.

Mudflap if the size and shape were any indication at all.

 _I'm gone for barely a week in a half and the whole damn world comes apart._ He thought in irritation as he took a moment to call out. "Autobots!" After which people began running from all different area's of the building and quickly converged on the living room.

One of whom was Ratchet. Perfect. He could yell at all of them for trashing the place and then move on to the conversation he needed to have with Ratchet about taking Sara as his spark mate.

The moment that everyone present in the house has assembled themselves around him, he took a moment to point to the various damaged or destroyed items or areas and then turned to look back at the lot of them, wondering if anyone was going to explain just what the hell had happened and almost snorted when several of the younger mechs began speaking all at once.

"It was like this-"

"There was this bug-"

"I didn't do anything-"

"We were only-"

"I had no part in any of this-"

"I've been doing my homework-"

" _Liars!_ I was trying to _educate_ these vermin at Ratchet's request and the whole lot of them went nuts!" Sideswipe finally said over everyone else. Optimus looked at him as he continued to speak, "We were watching a medical program on...the birthing of human young and the second that they all saw blood, Ratchet was tossed up in the air and suspended from the ceiling fan, those two started an all out brawl- Mudflap was punched through the wall and I found myself _tied_ to a fucking chair! The only good ones out of all of them that haven't done anything wrong was Bee, myself and Ratchet- the rest of them are frigging heathens in desperate need of a slagging ass kicking!"

Optimus's eerie blue eyes swept over the group for a moment before he slowly said, "Yes. I can see that." When Bee suddenly spoke up and asked,

"Is everything okay? Is Sara doing alright?"

To which Ratchet said, "Yes, Optimus- we didn't expect you back so soon. Is everything well?"

"I will tell all of you once those responsible for this mess clean this shit up." Optimus said as he slowly sat himself down on the couch and watched as half the mechs moved to begin cleaning up the mess that they had made while Bee, Ratchet and Sideswipe all stood there watching them as closely as their leader.

It took about half an hour, but by the time they were done, a majority of the damages had either been cleaned or fixed. And finally Optimus felt like answering the questions asked of him earlier.

"To answer Bee and Ratchet's earlier questions, everything is fine. Sara is as well as can be expected for someone in her current condition. And I've apparently made a bit of a nuisance of myself- which caused her to kick me out for a little bit."

"It's odd that you would make a nuisance of yourself," Ratchet said slowly as he mulled over his leader's words before mentally latching onto the words 'current' and 'condition' causing him to blurt out, "What did you mean by current condition?"

"Sara is primed for mating at the moment..."

The lot of them could almost hear a pin drop a thousand miles away- it was suddenly so quiet when finally Sideswipe said, "No wonder you made a nuisance of yourself. You didn't try to get into the femme's pants did you?"

"What pants? She wasn't wearing any. And she's overly pissed at me for ruining what she called a 'perfectly good shirt'. But it wasn't a perfectly good shirt- when one looks closer at it- one see's that it's practically threadbare and see through..." Optimus said in a slightly peeved tone. Still a little bit _irked_ about the earlier scolding that he had received from his future mate about ripping her shirt as he had. Until he seemed to register what he had just said, and then he quickly changed his tune. "The poor femme, I should apologize properly and fix that shirt for her."

Causing everyone to look at him oddly while Bee and Ratchet both gave him a knowing smirks. The _only_ reason the big bot would bother fixing a threadbare, and transparent shirt for Sara was if he wanted to look at her in it and see what kind of lacy garments she wore underneath it.

If any at all.

Finally the two mechs amusement seemed to fade a little bit as Bee asked Optimus what he was thinking. The older mech didn't dare answer that question at the moment. He knew his bots would never let him live it down if he did. After all, he couldn't very well blurt out that he was thinking about this morning when he had his femme pinned underneath him. Nor could he mention just how much he ached to have her under him again.

"You must be feeling very frustrated right now, at being this affected by Sara's mating cycle. I would suggest a cold shower, but seeing as we aren't human- those wouldn't exactly work." Ratchet said calmly.

"I'm aware of that," Optimus snipped as he recalled being dragged through Sara's home and to the bathroom where she then _tossed_ his ass into her shower underneath the spray of cold water around lunch time, after he had pulled her into the storage closest and tried to seduce her. Reaching up Optimus ran his fingers through his dark hair before then saying, "I wanted to speak to you all about my taking Sara as my spark mate. Any objections?" Several of the younger mechs put their hands up causing him to growl at them, and for their hands to quickly return to their sides lest he decide to rip their arms off in his aggravated state.

"You really wish to spark bond with Sara?" Ratchet asked curiously.

"I do. I even wanted to ask if it could help strengthen her body before she goes in for surgery in a few more weeks?"

Ratchet thought about it for a moment before finally saying, "Yes. I do believe that would work to help stabilize her health somewhat. However before you complete the bonding process you need to go through some links on the female reproductive cycle just in case you wind up procreating with her."

"Hn. Very well. Send me the links and I'll look at them later," Optimus said as he looked at the clock hanging on the wall and inwardly cringed as he noted that it was well passed the two hour mark. "For now I need to return. If anything else happens, call me." He said as he slowly got up off of the couch and quickly began to make his way towards the door in the hopes that Sara wouldn't be too upset with him for being late.


	24. Chapter 24

Later that evening once Sara had retired and gone to bed, Optimus had slipped out of the incredibly small living room window and gone on a slightly short excursion to the local Wal-Mart and found a whole bunch of nice shiny new buttons to sew onto the shirt that he had ruined that morning. And a nice small sewing kit to go with them.

Once that was done, he had jogged back to Sara's, took a few moments to check for burglars, and then slipped back into the house- _again_ through that insanely small window that just seemed to catch the waist of his pants just right enough to cause him some real problems. And once he was back inside, sat himself down on the couch in the dark and carefully dumped all of the buttons out in the cushions next to him and then slowly picked the prettiest ones.

Well, pretty in his opinion anyways.

After all he was a sexually overstimulated mech. What the hell did he care if something was _actually_ pretty or not as long as it suited his current purposes?

As he sat there in the dark and he went and carefully shifted through the garbage can and found the shirt that he had ruined and then went back to the couch and began the slightly tedious task of fixing the damage he'd caused as his mind wandered back to his previous conversation with Sara before she had scampered off to bed.

When he had finally shown up for dinner after visiting the others, she had been sitting at the coffee table looking a little bit peeved about something. And the second she noticed that he was there, she had wasted no time in demanding answers about what he had been thinking that morning when he had more or less accosted her.

Optimus had carefully thought over his response, wanting to be as truthful as he could without simply coming out and telling her that she was primed for mating. Especially since something told him that he would have to explain himself very, _very_ quickly once she got over her shock/mortification.

She'd probably slap him otherwise.

So instead he had simply told her- bluntly- that he liked her and just couldn't take it anymore. He pleaded temporary insanity in regards to how he had more or less attacked her.

She'd flushed, her green eyes going so wide that it was a wonder that her pretty eyes didn't simply pop right out of their sockets. As he had gone on to tell her that he would like to take her out on a date and then waited, and waited, and waited...for her to respond before she finally seemed to shake herself from her little stupor and told him that she'd never been on a date before so she wasn't sure if he would still like her if she gave him the green light. However Optimus wasn't one to be swayed by a femme's low opinion of herself, and assured her that regardless of how things turned out- he would still like her.

She had been reluctant, but after a few minutes she had given him the green light, earning a grin from him up until she had quietly collected her dishes of half eaten food and stood up to take them into the kitchen and gave him fair warning.

If he pulled anymore stunts like he had this morning- or hurt her, then she was going to personally break his face. Optimus hadn't known how to respond to that. One thing was for sure though, he wasn't going to get grabby with her again with a threat like that hanging over his head.

Once he finished fixing the shirt, he then took it to the little room in the back of the building where the washer and dryer were and threw it in the washer and dumped some detergent in the machine and then walked off.

He was still feeling wide awake so he'd be up long enough to finish washing, drying and then folding the shirt before he'd get any sleep. In the meantime he made sure to hide the money that Sara had given to him for helping her in the store, in another DVD case on her shelf and then slowly shook his head in amusement.

If she kept paying him unneeded funds, and he kept hiding it all in her DVD cases- pretty soon he'd run out of cases to hide the stuff in. And then he'd be in trouble, especially if he was around when she found it all.


	25. Chapter 25

**Happy holidays everyone!**

(******************************************************************************************************************)

Sometime between drying the shirt that he had fixed and sitting down to do research on human coupling and courtship rituals, Optimus somehow managed to fall asleep sitting upright on the couch with his head resting against the back cushion, his arms had been folded across the sculpted muscles of his chest with the various programs flitting through his mind.

This of course was how he was found by Sara the next morning. And though she didn't say anything when he managed to crack an eye open to look at her, he did see her shake her head slightly as if bemused by his resting pose.

Their day began simply enough, Sara got up- and though she was damn near silent in all of her actions- the moment that she entered the living room he went from sound asleep to wide awake in an instant. After that she made the two of them breakfast. They ate and then she went and opened the store.

And it wasn't until about lunch time, after no more than ten patrons had come and gone that he finally began to notice what his future mate was wearing.

It wasn't hard to see, much less take note of on such a pretty girl- his femme could fucking stop traffic if she were to be stupid enough to step outside dressed as she was in her daisy duke cut off shorts, and emerald green mesh shirt underneath a black satin deep V neck halter top.

No scratch that, He thought darkly as he watched her tend to another customer- this one an somewhat elderly male that obviously had a developing staring problem almost as bad as he did. If his femme was foolish enough to step outside dressed so scandalously- she wouldn't just stop traffic, she'd be the reason that everyone involved in the pile-up outside wound up _dead_.

Because he would flat out have to kill them if any of them dared to look at what would one day be his.

He wasn't sure how she managed to get rid of the guy, but since he was only there long enough to pick out some random item and purchase it- Optimus supposed that it didn't really matter. However once the guy was gone, he went and flipped the sign on the door and locked it as well and then grabbed Sara around the waist and tossed her over his shoulder and stalked out of the shop and down the short hall to her living area and tossed her down on the couch before growling out, "While I enjoy a nice view, dearest- kindly go change your clothes before I am forced to commit murder."

Sara looked at him for a moment, wondering what the hell crawled up his ass when his words finally hit her.

Oh hell no! He did not just tell her to change her clothes. He may like her and feel possessive of her- but he wasn't her fucking daddy, and she'd wear whatever she damn well pleased. And if he didn't like it, he could leave.

 _"Excuse you,"_ Sara snapped at the agitated teen pacing back and forth a few feet from her, her tone causing him to turn his head and narrow his neon blue eyes at her as she slowly sat up on the couch and started growling back at him. "You aren't my boyfriend Optimus. Nor are you my father- And I'll wear whatever I damn well please!"

"Oh really?" Optimus said looking down at his angry femme and trying really, really hard not to admire the soft pink flush in her cheeks. "You know that if you don't listen to me and go change now- I'll be forced to bring in the big guns right?" He wasn't joking either despite his slight teasing tone.

This was no game to him and he would shamelessly throw her to the wolves if it meant getting her to do as he bid. And by 'wolves' he meant her grandfather.

He walked over to the cordless phone and picked it up and stared at it for a moment to give her enough time to get up off of her cute ass and run upstairs, however she merely gave him a mutinous look and glared at him, causing him to sigh before saying, "I get no pleasure from what I'm about to do," Which was true. He enjoyed the thought of bringing Samuel into this about as much as he enjoyed his first dentist appointment as a human.

Which had been not been fun at all.

Turning the phone around so that she could see what he was doing, he pressed the numbers on her speed dial that would assure that her grandparents answered while he watched her go wide eyed at the same exact moment that he put the phone on speaker and Samuel picked up.

"Sara? Sara honey?"

"Samuel, this is Optimus. Sara's friend. And we have a little issue that I think you need to be aware of."

"I remember you. I-Is she okay?"

"She's fine, but she needs you here right now."

"I'm on my way kid!" Samuel practically shouted into the phone before there was a series of bangs followed by, "Cassie- grab my pants! Sara needs me!"

Optimus tried to bite back his grin as he hung up the phone and then looked at his future mate again. She snarled at him and then got up and raced upstairs, damn near causing him to double over laughing. His femme would likely not forgive him for a good long while after this stunt, but that was alright as long as she wasn't parading around him in that damn outfit.

He was after all an overly stimulated mech, and he didn't really trust himself around her right now. Especially dressed like she was. So this was the best thing that he could think of to protect her from others as well as himself.


	26. Chapter 26

"I can't believe that you called my own grandfather on me." Sara growled at him over dinner later that day once she had managed to finally get her grandpa to leave her alone. Optimus looked at her for a second before flashing her a charming smile, his blue eyes glittering with amusement as he took a bite of his pasta and replayed the events of the day over in his head before emitting a quiet chuckle.

"You were dressed far too revealing." He said, as if his words excused his actions when they didn't. Well, not in his femme's mind anyways.

"How I wish to dress in my own home is no one's business but mine!" Sara snapped at him before pushing her plate away from her with a huff.

"It's my business while I'm there because like the rest of the males that had come into the shop today- I felt as if I were an active participant in a peep show. Besides, I don't like it when anyone else but me looks at you."

"Well unless your planning to start gouging eyes, then get over it. You aren't my father, or husband. You aren't even my boyfriend for crying out loud. What right do you have to feel jealous of anything?"

Optimus carefully placed his fork on the table and reached out with one hand and grasped the front of her shirt and surprised her by yanking her forward in her seat while he leaned forward until their noses almost touched and growled out. "I do not feel jealous. But if I did, it is only because I care for you and do not wish you to fall into a bad situation due to your naivete. Regardless of what you believe, males are dangerous when their passions are inflamed. Tease them by running around in a skimpy outfit and you are basically asking for trouble."

He released her and sat back in his seat with a slight glare. His temper was barely leashed at the moment due to her harsh words and he needed her to understand that while calling her grandfather had been quite humorous- it had been in her best interests.

Besides, he wasn't sure how much longer he could have withstood her prancing around dressed as she had been before he either jumped her bones himself or resorted to violence with the other males.

She huffed and pouted a little bit before saying in a gentler tone, "You could have simply explained that to begin with." If he had, she might not have tore into him just now.

He gave her a faint smile and then stood up to go and make another plate for himself and while he was up he decided to make one for her too since he had noticed that she had barely eaten anything at all today. Especially since she had skipped lunch due to her grandfather hanging around her and driving her crazy.

Going over the various foods at the buffet, he made her a plate of fried chicken and a lot of mashed potato's with even more ranch dressing covering them in the hopes that the food he brought her would tempt her to eat a little bit more. Before they had left her house, she had been called by her doctor and told that her surgery would be in another few four to five days.

Which was hardly enough time to plan very much as far as her care and such went, however Optimus was nothing but highly efficient at what he did. And as it turned out, he tended to excel at planning the lives of others.

Sara, since she was his future mate- would be no exception to this.

Walking back over to their table, he carefully placed the plate that he had made for her on the table in front of her and then sat down in his own seat and picked up his fork when he noticed that she had made no move to even attempt eating what he had brought for her. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he studied her for a moment before realizing the problem.

She suddenly looked white as a ghost and her breathing pattern was different. Indicating internal distress.

"Sara, are you well?" He asked as he set his fork back down just in time for her to jump up out of her seat with one hand covering her mouth and run for the restrooms while he sat wide eyed in his seat for a moment before getting up to follow her.

The moment that he reached the door of the ladies room he could hear her retching, and her quiet sobs and gasps for air in between becoming ill and felt his spark ache for her. She likely wouldn't be trying to eat anything anytime soon once they left here. So maybe he should get her something to go for later, just in case and then once he got her home, he would put her to bed.

The last time he had checked, they had a decent vegetable soup here. He'd get her some of that and some more potato's and ranch. If nothing else she could eat those once she was up to it.

But before he did anything he needed to check on her and make sure that she was alright. So after about twenty minutes of patiently waiting for her to come out of the restroom- the moment that she did, she looked so exhausted that she almost literally collapsed into his arms.

Holding her against his body, he carefully rubbed her back in what he hoped was a soothing motion as he asked her if she was alright only to hear her whimper that she was tired. After which he had helped her back to their table and then told her to wait for him, and grabbed their check and went to pay it and get the extra food for later before coming back and helping her to her feet so that he could take her home to rest.


	27. Chapter 27

They had had to stop several times, the last time of course being the worst, because Sara had continued to become ill. Optimus stood barely an inch from her as she dry heaved until there was nothing left for her to vomit up, not even liquid, at which time he had then shifted his hold on the plastic bag of food that he'd bought for her to eat later on, and knelt down behind her so that he could carefully scoop her up in his arms before he stood up again and began walking.

Seemingly not minding in the least that he was having to carry her while his poor tired and sick femme sobbed out one needless apology after another.

It had taken a little more effort than usual due to her being sick, but by the time he'd gotten her home and managed to open the front door and slip inside of the building- he carried her down the hall to the living room where he set down the bag and then took the stairs up to her room where he gently laid her down on her bed.

And then began to strip her of her shoes, jacket and anything else uncomfortable looking so that she could rest easier, and then tucked her in and leaned over her and kissed her cheek before quietly exiting the room.

Walking back down stairs, he grabbed the bag and made his way into the kitchen and then put her food away in the fridge before returning to the living room to sit himself down and watch some TV and think.

Despite how well his femme had seemed to be doing lately, he couldn't help the nagging feeling that she was steadily getting worse and wondered if her doctors had known and anticipated this. He knew that _he_ hadn't. And that was after basically living with her for the past month or so.

He spent several hours sitting in the living room, after calling her grandparents and telling them about the upcoming surgery and arranging for them to come by and work at the shop when they could and then called Ratchet and Bee and told them of what was going on.

Ratchet firmly told him to establish the spark bond before she went into the hospital just in case. And even suggested some drugs to help her rest through the bonding process so that she wouldn't fight it.

While Bee told him that he'd drop by whenever he needed him to, to work in the shop or just wait on the femme hand and foot. He didn't seem to care all that much which. He just seemed genuinely happy that he could be of use.

Sitting there on the couch, Optimus deliberated with himself on what to do.

He really didn't want to form his spark bond with Sara through such unscrupulous means, but at the same time it wasn't like he was going to take full advantage of her while she slept. He only needed to touch her the barest minimum to bring her to climax enough for the spark bond to form.

But at the same time, he also didn't feel right sending her into surgery in a few days without the bond to strengthen her already frail body. As Ratchet had pointed out already, anything could happen to her while she was being operated on. Human doctors were only so good.

And sometimes they lost stuff, like rings and such inside of the body, or even bandages and swabs. Which could give Sara some sort of infection that could very easily kill her.

And if that happened there was no guarantee that Optimus wouldn't actually attack and injure or kill someone in a rage. Cybertronian's were nothing but _protective_ of their mates. So if anything happened to her- Optimus wouldn't be able to control himself.

Scrubbing his face with his hands, he sighed and then muttered to himself, "I'll have to have a few of the others with me at the hospital..." To stop him from injuring or killing someone if something happened. Sighing again, he got up from his seat on the couch and went to prepare what would be needed to help him bond with Sara.

Though he didn't dare keep her totally unconscious so that he could form the bond. He would much rather her be half out of it so that he could seduce her more easily than have her be unconscious and totally unresponsive to him and his ministrations.


	28. Chapter 28

**Still depressed...and have been roped into being a co author/beta for someone else's work. also, in this chap of Good Intentions, I've had people comment on how Optimus is basically planning to rape Sara and want to reassure everyone that that isn't his intention.**

 **At the same time, ya'll need to look at things from a different perspective.**

 **Mechs aren't known to violently sexually assault someone. They would literally rip them to pieces if they did.**

 **And being that Optimus is an very old, alien mech- things like rape- while the information is at his fingertips and easily assessable, he would _not_ understand the horror of it. He could try until he's blue in the face but unless he saw the devastation up close and personal, he still wouldn't understand it.**

 **So- those of you who are upset by his current mindset, please take a few steps back, breathe and thinks for a moment about things from his point of view.**

 **I'm not going to lie and say what he's doing is one hundred percent right. But he thinks it is. And that thought is backed by his instinct to be near his new found mate and to bind her to him no matter what.**

 **With that in mind, there will be times where he toes the line in the sand. And a few times where he may even cross it.**

 **But Optimus is still Optimus. His worries, his concerns, his fears, and his former heartaches or spark aches in this case) will guide him in everything that he does.**

 **So all that aside, don't expect much, just in case. And let's see what our favorite bot does. I think in the end, he really just might surprise you.**

(**************************************************************************************************)

Optimus didn't have a totally good feeling about giving drug laced juice to Sara to drink so that he could do what he needed to do to create a spark bond between them. In fact the very thought of drugging her left a bad taste in his mouth.

It also caused his stomach to tie itself into knots and to feel more than a little bit sickened.

He had heard horror stories about human femmes and what often happened to them when they were drugged. Though he didn't understand as much of it as he would both like/dislike to. And it was with many of those horror tales in mind that he firmly decided against slipping anything in the juice that he was preparing for Sara.

If his femme needed to be well rested and was having trouble sleeping _then_ he would deal with it. But for now, he would leave things untampered with. Placing the orange juice back in the fridge, he picked up the glass and turned to leave the kitchen when he heard a somewhat muffled thump from upstairs, and frowned.

It sounded as if something had fallen.

Moving more quickly than he had ever moved before in his holoform body, he made it across the room and up the stairs in the blink of an eye and then found himself standing outside of Sara's bedroom. Silently listening to the soft sounds within it.

It sounded as if his femme were up. Or...down? Whatever the case may be.

Reaching out, he slowly pushed the door to the bedroom open and peered inside to see that Sara wasn't in bed. No- his dear little femme was instead lying net to the bed half curled on her side, facing away from him.

"Sara?" Optimus whispered, not wanting to disturb her if this was some weird human ritual that he didn't know anything of. When she didn't answer him, he became vaguely alarmed and quickly crossed the space between them and set the glass of juice down on her bedside table as he slowly knelt down next to her and reached out to turn her over and then stopped.

His hand freezing in mid air before coming into contact with her as his mind puzzled over the startling new information before it even really registered with him that his little femme was burning up with fever. Eyes widening once he realized what was going on, he grabbed her shoulder and rolled her over onto her back and felt a sliver of fear snake it's way through him as he looked down at her face.

His beloved femme was ashen, her face and long dark hair damp with sweat, and there was bile coating her chin and the front of her shirt. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment as she took a gurgling breath as he picked her up and then quickly carried her back to her bed and propped her up while he then grabbed a waste basket and put it underneath her face as she began throwing up again.

Her trembling hands coming up from her sides to weakly grasp at the object that she was emptying her stomach into as Optimus carefully collected her hair to hold it back from her face and keep it from being messed up. He figured that he may be a tad bit late in that regard, but he could fix that easily enough once he had established the spark bond with her and she was once again resting.

Finally she seemed to finish puking, at which point Optimus removed the waste basket from her hands and placed it as far away from her and the bed as he possibly could before then going to collect a clean night shirt and a pair of panties and then returning to her side and carefully picking her up again and heading into the bathroom.

He seriously doubted that his femme would try sleeping covered in bile, no matter how miserable she felt at the moment.

The smell of it alone would upset her delicate stomach even more.

Setting her down on the edge of the sink countertop, he quickly went about laying out what he would need to help her bathe- if she needed his help- he doubted that she would truly allow him to help beyond simply wiping her down and running the shower, but he intended to stay in the room with her, even if he had to turn his back on her to allow her some measure of modesty while she cleaned herself up.

Until she bathed though, he would have to content himself with wetting a rag and wiping her pale skin off.

Due to the fever and illness, her awareness of what he was doing was minimized. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but he was leaning more towards not. However it allowed him to strip her of her shirt and bra without her fighting him. Something that he was grateful for given her condition.

Ignoring the idea of simply staring at her for a moment (he was a hot blooded male in the presence of his chosen mate, after all) he quickly grabbed a rag and wet it with some lukewarm water and then began the task of wiping her off. Starting at her mouth, he quickly worked his way down to the valley of her breasts as he watched the faint flicker of awareness finally show within her dull soft green eyes as she shivered.

From the air or his touch? He didn't know. He was trying to ignore his own wants and needs in lieu of her own. However it was an uphill battle and he was kind of losing.

He could tell by the annoyingly persistent aching and throbbing of his lower body. The sensations there told him that while his mind was attempting distraction, his body didn't give a damn. It was ready to do what he needed to do.

Which was what exactly? It wasn't like Sara was in any condition for coupling of any kind. But then again, Ratchet had mentioned that he wouldn't need to copulate with her to establish a spark bond.

He merely had to bring her to climax.

Which sounded easy enough. He could either use his hands or his mouth on her, or even a combination of both. However he feared that she may be so weak right now that she would pass out on him before he could do so.

Maybe he should wait?

But she was growing weaker. What if he waited too long and she went in for her surgery and never returned? He set the rag aside and grabbed the mouth wash for her. He couldn't allow her to brush her teeth, but he could let her hold the minty mouth wash in her mouth just long enough to kill the taste of her bile.

Once that was done, he grabbed the waste basket between the sink and the toilet and let her spit the mouth wash out in it, and then set it aside again as he quickly collected her in his arms again and then set her on her feet outside of the shower and then straightened his spine and said, "Strip." Causing her to blink owlishly at him for a moment.

He ignored her lack of reaction to his demand and simply busied himself with turning on the tap in the shower and adjusting the water temperature so that she would be comfortable before turning back to her and making a small growling sound.

Blasted femme hadn't moved so much as a muscle to do as he had said. Sighing heavily, he leaned down and slipped an arm around her shoulders to pull her against his torso and then hooked a finger in the waistband of her panties and tugged them down, earning a shocked sounding gasp from his femme before he quickly and gently pushed her into the shower and then handed her the shampoo and then quietly closed the door and then went to sit himself down on the toilet until she got out.

She was in the shower for about ten minutes before she called out to him, and told him that she was starting to feel dizzy. At which point he jumped up and went to get her before she had an accident and fell and cracked her head open or something.

The moment that the water to the shower was off, he wrapped her in the warmest, fluffiest towel that he managed to find and then drug her out of the shower and sat her on his lap while he grabbed another towel to dry her soaked hair, neck, shoulders and face.

"Are you feeling any better now?"

"Not really. Tired."

"Hn. I can imagine." He said gently as he used one hand to push some of her hair off of one of her shoulders so that he could lean in and kiss her there.

"W-What are you doing?" Sara squeaked as she felt his lips against her skin.

"Kissing your shoulder."

"Why?"

"Why not? It's a nice shoulder." He said gently as he let her climb off of his lap and head towards her clean clothing and closed his eyes to let her have some privacy. Though he wasn't exactly sure just how much privacy she really had since he could hear the rustling of her clothing.

Finally the room was quiet and he slowly opened his eyes, as if he were checking to see if she were really done or if she had for some unfathomable reason managed to fall asleep standing up while dressing. Upon opening his eyes, he noted that she was dressed, and leaning against the counter trying to catch her breath.

"You done?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. I'll take you back to bed then." He said as he got back up again and then walked over to her and scooped her up. Strangely, she said nothing at all about him carrying her around like a doll or about how he had taken care of her thus far.

Instead she had simply wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against the side of his neck and let him do as he pleased.

Once in her bedroom, he hesitated for a moment when he got to the bed. Not wanting to lay her on it if she had accidentally thrown up somewhere in the messy sheets and covers. Especially since she had just cleaned herself in the shower and now smelled normally again despite her fever and illness tainting her normally pleasant scent with something akin to a thunder storm's like smell.

"You didn't throw up in the bed, did you?"

He felt her slight shake of her head in response and sighed in relief. Oh thank god. He thought to himself as he shifted the covers and sheets around so that he could lay her down and then climb into the bed beside her. No matter what happened from this point on, he would not allow his femme to sleep alone this night.

Not after finding her as he had a little while ago.

Laying Sara down on her bed, he took the time to carefully pry her arms from around his neck before nudging her a bit so that she would scoot over for him. Earning a small puzzled look from his femme before she complied. And once she had moved over enough and was curling up to doze back off, she suddenly jerked wide awake when she realized that he was climbing into her bed.

"Optimus-"

"Hush, little one. You're still ill and I will not leave you like I did before."

"B-But-"

"No arguments. I'm just going to lend you my strength and let you use me as a body pillow." It wasn't technically a lie. He had every intention of doing just that. However he knew that she wasn't aware as to just how he was going to go about it.

Come to think of it, he was still sort of stuck on that little detail himself.

He had only had one spark bond to another before, and well to be honest, it had been only a partial spark bond. Something that was incredibly rare among his kind given that a true spark mate was meant to be bonded to one another in life, death and every world beyond so that if one was reborn, the other would be too.

The idea of a true spark bond was what Optimus supposed human's equivalent to a soulmate. Both were born searching for the other, and once found, were bound by a bond stronger than life, death, and even time.

However when he had partially park bonded to Elita, it had been under the pressures and duress caused by his peers. They had felt that since the war on Cybertron was just starting, and spark mates were being targeted, it would be an bad idea to have the only Prime currently living, spark bonded to another that upon being destroyed, could also cause his own death.

They had been right for the most part, but he had figured out long ago that Elita was not meant to be his true spark mate. Which was why he had not followed her in death upon learning of her demise at the hands of his enemy.

He had been enraged by her death. Even sorrowful that she had perished.

She had held such a lovely spark, and such potential. Killing her had been pointless. He had spent much of his spare time over the centuries thinking of her and mourning her- but he had long realized that he did not love her the way that he should have.

He had been in love with the idea of her.

Sara however...he could feel that she was his true spark mate. There was simply an inescapable pull that drew him to her. The more time he spent with her, the more he could imagine their lives together. In a few years, once they both finished with school/college, he would present her with a nice ring someplace- possibly romantic like Paris or something- where he would tell her just how much he both loved and adored her, feed her her favorite foods (with tons of buttermilk ranch dressing, he knew that she wouldn't touch her food without it).

And then take her out dancing someplace nice (not a club, he wanted class not trashy music and strange women in slutty clothing and strange men touching the two of them while he was trying to romance his mate) then he would take her to a nice... _something_ he was still trying to figure out now was if he wanted to buy or rent a cozy vacation home for them to live in half of the year, technically speaking he had the money to do both) where they would curl up in their bed after several rounds of world shattering love making and he wanted the last thing that he saw each amazing night, to be Sara's pretty face.

Just as he wanted to awaken each day and kiss her awake.

And plus he also wanted their kids to be included. He was hoping for at least three or four. He didn't care if one gender wound up being outnumbered by the other as long as each of them were happy and healthy.

And any daughters that they had looked like their mother and _never_ dated anyone while he was still alive and kicking. _Literally_. That right there was the total package deal to him. The ideal, white picket fence life. It was what he wanted for himself and his mate, and he would settle for nothing less.

Curling his body around hers, he slipped an arm around her middle and pulled her flush with his front and caused her to stir slightly and ask him to talk to her.

Optimus smiled as he settled his chin on top of her head. There was a lot that he could say in this semi perfect moment while he had her in his arms. He could tell her of what he was, or rather _who_ he was- but that would place her in danger if anyone should even find him out. So he opted not to speak of something that could place her life at risk.

So instead he quietly told her of his feelings for her and how deeply they ran. He knew that he had already approached her about a relationship before, but that had been a mere introduction to what was to come.

He was not a being of sedate passions.

He would have died of possible boredom or insanity long ago if he had been. No- he was someone who once a flame was ignited, was consumed by that flame until it turned into an raging inferno.

He kept his voice low as he paused speaking to her to ask her what her thoughts were on the two of them. Needing to gain some sort of permission from her before he went any further. When she made a small humming sound as if she were both still half asleep/thinking over his question before answering him, he was quiet and patient.

Wanting to be able to address any legitimate concerns that she may have about them as a romantic couple. Surprisingly, she wasn't as adverse to them being a couple as she had seemed to be. She just didn't know him too well at the moment and wished to take her time doing that.

Getting to know him.

He had no real issues with that, if it was what she wanted. But he still needed to spark bond with her to help strengthen her body.

So when he asked if it would be alright to touch her- nothing else, he refused to be the sort of male that terrorized a helpless and defenseless femme just to satisfy his own needs. She hesitated for a moment but then asked what he wanted to do to her. Apparently she didn't want it to be a shock or surprise. Or perhaps she simply wanted to know so that he wouldn't be taking advantage of her current weakness.

He wasn't sure which, but he relented and told her in almost excruciating detail what he wished to do to her, and by the time he had finished she rolled herself over onto her back and was looking at him oddly before asking in a distressed tone if she was going to survive this particular ordeal.

He snorted in amusement at her question and leaned down to kiss her softly, telling her against her lips that by the time he was done with her she would feel, much, much better.

And also that she could kick his ass in the morning as long as she was feeling up to it.

Spark boning himself to Sara didn't take nearly as long as he had thought it would. Her body was simply too responsive to his ministrations for it to take as long as he had expected it to. And though there had been once or twice when she had begun to panic and fight the bond, he had been able to calm her easily enough by allowing their sparks to entwine with one another and sooth her fears.

All in all it was a very pleasant experience for them both.

He brought her to her peak three times, screaming his name before she had finally passed out on him. Whereas Optimus himself had brought himself to climax just as many times and upon realizing that his mate had fainted on him, chuckled softly and then lay himself back down next to her and gathered her pliant body up in his arms and cuddled her to his chest as he practically purred with satisfaction.

Finally, Sara was his in every way but the human way.

He would fix that soon enough though, he thought as he slowly dozed off. The exhaustion of sharing his spark with his human mate was finally washing over his senses, causing them all to shut down for the moment.

He just hoped that if Sara decided to kick his ass tomorrow that she decided to do so once he was awake and alert.


	29. Chapter 29

Several hours later, Optimus found himself slightly jerking awake to look around for a moment. The need to assure himself that Sara was alright, and everything else was fine- was riding him hard.

Drowsily, he slowly looked down at the still unconscious form of his mate and felt a small smile tug at his lips before he then lifted the arm secured around her waist so that he could bring his hand up and tenderly brushed her damp bangs back from her face so that he could check her for any signs of any further illness, and almost sighed in relief when he felt that her skin was cool to the touch, if a little bit clammy, indicating that she was no longer running a fever for the moment.

Which was good.

 _Very good._

Especially since it meant that he wouldn't have to let his mate continue to suffer any ill effects of her prior illness when it meant her life could be endangered from it. Especially with her surgery only a few more days away.

He wanted her well enough that everything went smoothly when she went into the hospital. That way she could come home to him that much faster. Leaning over her sleeping form, he pressed his lips to her temple and then slowly made sure to extract himself from her so that he could get up and find something to fix for breakfast and get ready to open the shop.

He didn't know how long she would be sleeping today after everything that had happened last night. But he kind of got the feeling that he'd be working solo today.

Not that he minded overly much, he knew that with as frail as her health and body were- she would likely need the extra rest anyways. He would however make sure to keep a check on her and see to it that she ate some of either of the potato's or vegetable soup that he had bought yesterday.

But for the most part- he expected her to rest while their bond finished forming.

Besides, if he caught her up and trying to do shit on her own today, he was likely to lose his temper a little bit. Making sure that the covers were tucked up around her shoulders, he silently padded out of the room to go and shower, change his clothes and go about his usual daily routine when it occurred to him that he may need to contact Ratchet and the others and see if some of them could swing by.

He knew for a fact that Bee would be thrilled to know of his spark bond with his new mate. Even more so, should Optimus speak to him about possibly being her bodyguard when he wasn't nearby.

He knew that Ratchet would want to look at her. Or at least get close enough to scan her without her knowing about it so that he could check out her health and tell Optimus what she needed and what she didn't at the moment.

The others, he knew would fall in line.

He also at some point needed to speak with her grandparents about possibly marrying her the human way. From what little bit he knew of human courtship rituals, it was only right for the male to ask for the female's hand after approaching her family/guardian's about the arrangement.

But that wouldn't be for a while yet.

Perhaps around the time that they graduate from school would be the best time to sit down with Samuel and Cassy? He would have to think on it more later.

After he had showered and dressed, he then went downstairs after pausing right outside of Sara's room and peeking in to check and see if she were still resting. He was satisfied to know that she was, and so headed on downstairs to the kitchen where he began pulling items out of the fridge, and cabinet so that he could begin fixing himself some breakfast while mentally contacting Ratchet and the others.

And instead of their usual greetings, nearly flinched at the impressive sounding snarl that he got from someone in greeting. Apparently either someone was entirely too pissed to be civil, or entirely too damn frustrated. Still, it _was_ an impressive sounding snarl.

He just didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

 _Bee, settle down._

He felt the automatic shift in the younger mechs thought processors a moment before he tentatively sent out the question, _Optimus?_

 _Yes. Now calm yourself._

 _I...will try._

 _Good. And while you are doing that, you can tell me what the hell you were snarling at._

 _Damn human sparklings. The ones that have been picking fights with us at that slagging school jumped me while I was on my way home._

 _Are you injured?_

 _No more than usual. I'll have Ratchet check me over once I'm home._

 _Very well._ Optimus said to the mech before switching frequencies a bit and asking, _Ratchet? Are you there?_

 _I am._

 _The spark bonding process went down last night. Sara is now officially my mate. Already her body seems to be taking to the bond very well, however it would ease my mind if you would come over and scan her...she was...very ill last night when the spark bond was made._

 _How ill?_ Ratchet questioned, wanting to get as much information as possible. Optimus sent him some memory clips that he had taken last night about her condition and got back an automatic, _I'm on my way._ Before the link seemed to have died on the other end.

Optimus sighed and looked balefully at the French toast ingredients that he had just finished pulling out and then left the kitchen to go and unlock the shop door so that Ratchet could let himself in before returning to the kitchen and beginning to make his breakfast.


	30. Chapter 30

The moment that Ratchet walked in with Bee and Sideswipe close behind him, Optimus growled threateningly at the three to be _silent_ as he slowly closed and relocked the door of the shop behind them and then motioned for them to follow him from the front of the building to the back.

Due to the fact that Sideswipe and Ratchet having never been there before- the two were understandably curious about the place that their leader's femme called her home. However one glare from Optimus whenever they started to reach out and touch something to help satisfy their curiosity and they were quick to drop their hands to their sides and _refrain_ from attempting to touch anything again.

Whereas Bee apparently knew exactly what to expect form Optimus at the moment seeing as the punk mech didn't even get so much as a glower from the big bot.

Once in the living room, Optimus then placed a finger to his lips to again indicate quiet and then reached out and carefully pushed Bee and Sideswipe down onto the couch and whispered that he and Ratchet would return momentarily before he then led the other mech upstairs and silently pushed open Sara's bedroom door and then padded over to her bed and carefully crawled onto it and lay himself next to her.

It wasn't a typical spark bond reaction, Ratchet noted as Optimus lay himself on the bed next to the sleeping femme.

The reason for his action had to do with the fact that despite being asked to come over and check the femme over- he was an intruder in her private sanctuary and as such if Optimus so much as thought he was _touching_ or _tampering_ with something that he shouldn't- he would kill him.

There would be no joking around. No mere beating or breaking of his current body to make him stop- He would eradicate his holoform from the face of the planet and then hunt down his actual mech form and destroy it as well.

Carefully moving to the other side of the bed, way the hell away from Optimus's reach. Or so he hoped, Ratchet began his scan of the human femme that was now bound to his leader.

From her vitals alone, he could tell that she was taking to the spark bond extremely well. Her vitals were good. Lingering traces of illness were being beaten back and slowly disappearing. Hell by the time she went in for her surgery there was a slightly good chance that her body may have completely healed itself.

And if not...well- modern medicine wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference either way. Though she would heal somewhat faster from her surgery. Something that would keep Optimus occupied for a while and drive him up the wall as well.

Ratchet could almost imagine the big bot trying to take care of his little femme and winding up with her running circles around him when she should be on bed rest. Optimus would have to be avoided for a little while once that happened otherwise whomever caught his attention during that time would wind up possibly being throttled by the frustrated mech.

Finally finishing his scan of the femme bound to the last of the Primes, he made a silent motion with his head to indicate that he was going to leave the room now. And almost mentally begged for Optimus not to attack him while his back was turned.

The moment that he was out of the bedroom, Optimus seemed able to breathe easier knowing that the foreign mech was gone from his mate's side. Logically speaking he knew that he was the one who called Ratchet and that he was a close personal friend of his. He even knew and understood that their race needed him since he was their one and only doctor/healer however he hadn't been able to keep from tensing up due to the proximity needed for him to assess his mate's condition.

Perhaps it was because she was a human, and her life and body could easily be injured or even (and his actually shuddered to think of this) destroyed, that caused him to react as he had. Whatever the reason, he would be sure to apologize to Ratchet for his actions once he managed to peel himself away from Sara's side.

Messing with the covers protecting her body from the slight morning chill, he made sure that they were once again up around her slender shoulders and then leaned over her and brushed a kiss against her temple.

Kissing, it would seem, was quickly becoming one of his favorite 'mating' acts.

He couldn't seem to get enough flesh on flesh contact. Even in the smallest of capacities. It was...well, strange really. He had never been the type of male that got handsy or was overly affectionate with a femme for any reason. So he didn't understand why that had been changing.

Perhaps he should ask Ratchet about that after he apologized to him? Optimus wondered to himself as he silently padded out of the room and gently closed the door behind him so that any noise that the others made would be muffled enough not to bother Sara.


	31. Chapter 31

"I'm sorry Ratchet," Were the first words that the neon blue eyed mech said to him the second that he stepped out of his femme's room. "I am trying to adjust to the bond as quickly as I can, but it is difficult. She is so frail... It brings my instinct to protect her to the forefront of my mind and magnifies it."

Ratchet blinked at him before slowly and cautiously extending his hand to his friend and leader and allowed the abashed male to take it in his own. "It's alright. I somewhat expected her humanity to cause a bit of a reaction within the bond. Especially on your end."

"I-Is she taking to the bond well?"

"Yes. Despite her frailty and humanity she is taking to it very well. I wouldn't be surprised if when she went in for her surgery- the doctors let her leave much earlier than any of us anticipated. But even if they do, you will still have to keep her from getting up and moving around too much."

Optimus gave his long time friend's hand a quick squeeze to show his appreciation for his help before letting him go. "I will. Thank you."

"Do you-er _will_ you be needing any help in the shop? I've spoken to some of the others and gotten several volunteers to help you if you do."

"I've spoken to Bee about it. To be perfectly honest I worry about letting Red Alert or one of the others near the shop. She's worked so hard to maintain it- and one wrong person walking in could lead to irreparable damages. When the time comes, Bee will be enough help. Or I will contact you. As for everyone else, I might contact them if I need to run errands and worry about leaving her undefended."

"Fair enough," Ratchet said with a nod as he turned to leave before saying over his shoulder, "I'll drag the others out of here and leave you alone for now. But expect us all to be present when Sara goes through her surgery."

Optimus waited until his old friend was gone back downstairs and he could hear the others being ushered towards the door before turning on his heel and going back into the bedroom to lay back down next to his femme for a little while.

Once back inside of the room, he carefully crawled back into the bed next to his femme and slipped his arms around her and shifted her body closer to his own. Causing Sara to stir for a second before muttering something in a sleepy tone and then curled up like a kitten against his muscular frame and dozing back off.

Optimus didn't bother going back to sleep even though he was enjoying lying next to his spark mate. He was too wound up from the night before.

Initiating the spark bond had been more intense than any kind of intimacy that he had experienced before.

It was better than sex even.

In the few years that Optimus and the others had changed to their holoform bodies, they had had several sexual encounters with unknown females due to the fact that they were sorely lacking in knowledge. The intimacies of humans was a great deal different from their own brand of spark bonding. The physical release was incredible. Animalistic even, in some cases.

And though they didn't really mind that fact, it was just a little bit off putting to them. The whole touchy feely thing was...in some cases beyond their capacity to understand unless they felt an actual attraction to whomever they were attempting to be intimate with.

And finding a human femme in which they felt an actual attraction to chemically as well as personality wise, was _incredibly_ rare. Like one out of every ten million people kind of rare.

So far- to his knowledge, Optimus was the only male of his race to take a human femme as his spark bonded mate. And as such, he'd have to be incredibly careful of everything that he did to, for and near her from now on. Especially once she was ready to have his sparklings.

He would be walking on eggshells then.

Especially since he had no idea how long her body would be able to carry them without adverse effects. She might be able to carry them like normal human children. And then she may not. And they would have to be surgically removed from her body before they accidentally injured her internal organs while seeking his attention while in the womb.

Ratchet would have to put Sara to sleep and cut them from her body. But that was only if they took after him a great deal more than their human mother.

Raising up on his elbow, Optimus accessed the internet with his mind for a moment to check up on information about pregnant and expecting females. And...he was astonished by what human femmes went through to bring their offspring into the world.

Everything from their conception to the birth, amazed him.

He focused on some of the pictures that he found of random femmes in random stages of pregnancy, and closed his eyes as he placed his free hand over Sara's flat stomach. Using the images to imagine what she would look like carrying their sparklings.

Her face, smiling- glowing with health- while her body, her breasts and stomach swelled with milk and their offspring. My god she would be beyond breathtaking! He was almost so excited by the prospect that he wanted to awaken her and try coupling with her.

But he knew that his spark mate wouldn't allow him such liberties just yet. Human femmes had this weirdly insane _need_ to be romanced so that they could learn to feel something for the person romancing them.

And Optimus didn't mind this really. It was a form of caution in his mind. A way to pick a male who would treat them well and care for them the entirety of their lives.

He- himself was considered what human's called a romantic. So he didn't mind wooing his little spark mate in the least. Besides, the chase was half of the fun.


End file.
